Project Title: Lives of Artists: An Investigation into the Bay Area’s Art Community
BASIS Advisor: Ms. McLean
Internship Location: Akamichi Art Studio
Onsite Mentor: Mr. Lee Akamichi
There is a common perception that making a living as an artist in the Bay Area is hard. Despite this perception, I know many people who decide to attend art schools every year and dive into the industry. Although I don’t plan to attend an art school, I am deeply interested in the visual arts, which makes me wonder: what is it like to work as fine artists, designers, and art educators? Through interviews with industry professionals, I will gain insight into the artist community in the Bay Area, listening to stories of both struggle and success. Working with Akamichi Art Studio, I plan to collect narratives that document the working experience of these people; specifically, their level of satisfaction with their professions and what advice they can give to aspiring artists. My hope is that this project helps young people who are interested in having a career in the visual arts by presenting a bigger, fuller picture of their future career possibilities. Furthermore, I hope my investigation can answer more existential questions, such as why we appreciate art and what is our understanding of its role in society, by exploring the perspective of these artists.
My Posts
#11 – writing writing writing
Hello reader! The past week have been busy for me. After spending 3 days in Seattle, I started writing my final product — the news article — on Thursday and Friday. I also came up with an outline for my presentation. I’ve never written a news article before, so I read article written by famous […]
#10 – what kind of story do i want to write?
Hello reader! This week I did a lot of coding, structuring, and trying out different ways to write my final article. Ms. McLean and Mr. Hansen gave me really helpful advice on how to construct an interesting narrative. Although I have over 100 pages of transcript and the task seems daunting, I’m excited to finally […]
#9 – monotony
Hello reader! This week is rather monotonous for me. My only objective was to finish transcribing, and I could feel my eyeballs getting a bit dry from staring at the screen for hours everyday, haha! As I was transcribing, I highlighted some quotes I want to use and what I want to research more about. […]
#8 – wonderful critical thinkers
Hello reader! I was able to complete 4 interviews this week, which made a total of 11. I’ll try to do 2 more next week if time allows, but it’s already a good sample size to me although some of the opinions might be biased due to the limited demographics, which I will explain more […]
#7 – emma chamberlain’s dad
Hello reader! I had a really good, hour-long interview this week with Jesse, a creative prototyper who is also a multidisciplinary artist, but I somehow only got 20 minutes of the voice recording. That was kind of disappointing and I was mad at myself. I tried to write down everything I could remember, so hopefully […]
#6 – talking to strangers 101
Hello reader! My #1 fan, Abby Wang, was curious about what questions I ask the artists, so here is my line of questioning. Keep in mind I improvise a lot, and sometimes the person can answer 3 questions at once without me interrupting for 30 minutes… I promised in the last blog that I would […]
#5 – the flu got to me!
Hello reader! I was able to interview 3 amazing artists this week in both San Francisco and San Jose. They all were super nice and provided invaluable insight into my quest of learning the artist community in the Bay Area! Furthermore, I do have a lot more people to contact besides 2 interviews already scheduled […]
#4 – emails & manual labor
Hello reader! Who knew transcribing could be such a pain? I thought the manual labor that is transcribing my audio recording would be something relaxing or even strangely comforting, since everything else in my project requires either thinking or talking to people, but no, I was completely wrong. At first, I estimated that 45 minutes […]
#2&3 – online stalking & first interview
Hello reader! Over the first week and spring break, I’ve gathered more than a dozen contacts that I tried to get in touch this week. A big thank you to Dr. Beck, Instagram, and LinkedIn! Now, for the first topic of discussion: I realized that I did not explain my project in the last post, […]
#1 – lots of reading & thinking
Hello reader! I began the first week of senior project with a pile of books stacked on my nightstand. Here’s a list of what I’m reading and what I have learned. 1. Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies An awesome book that outlines the process of developing idea, narrowing the […]