Photo by sous les paves
I’ve been surrounded by creative people all my life, but not in the way I am here in Greensboro, NC. The passionate vibe to create and the hustle people have to support themselves is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.
I mean, both of my parents were art teachers, which provided them a consistent income, but they spent a vast majority of their creative energy fostering the creative development of others. They both had the skills to pursue doing art for a living (I’ve seen their work), but at some point early on they made pragmatic, career-based decisions to teach and raise a family instead.
They chose one life over another.
Over the years that I lived in NYC leading up to my move here, I befriended numerous people who were musicians, composers or artists after hours with a consistently advancing career in the commercial art world by day. Sure, there was always a struggle for time, but the job could be replaced in the blink of an eye with a linear move elsewhere in town. Making it as an artist, first and foremost, was a goal, but it was without a true sense of immediacy.
In These Parts
The people I’ve come to know here live their craft, bent on doing whatever it takes to keep doing what they do — whether they’re single or married with kids, creating is not an option, it’s a necessity… like breathing.
Take Harvey Robinson at Monkeywhale, or his PiC Carolyn de Berry. Not only do they create beautiful short films and photographs, but they prolifically pimp the best work that our creative community has to offer, 24/7. All of this with an eye on financing a feature film. Somehow, they make a living doing commercial work in the short time between.
Matty Sheets is a Monkeywhale contributor, member of two bands — Eating The Invaders and Come Hell Or High Water — and the MC of The Flatiron’s Tuesday night open mic. Last I heard, Matty was slinging coffee at The Green Bean, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hustling elsewhere to grab a buck to make ends meet.
My brother, Andy Coon, is creating, producing and shooting a web series, The Corporate Assassin, while taking on numerous freelance gigs to contribute to his mortgage payments. He’s married, wants kids and needs health insurance.
Molly McGinn works part-time at an agency, runs three blogs and assists at her friend’s palates studio so she can make both rent and music with her girls in Amelia’s Mechanics.
Dan Bayer shoots local HS sporting events and runs sound at shows around town (including ours at DMP) while trying to get a sound studio off the ground.
I could go on for a long while like this.
This is Greensboro — a town chock full of talented artists, musicians, filmmakers… but also defined by an aggregate population seemingly more interested in what’s on television & clubbing downtown than supporting the arts.
Check that. Not the arts, their arts.
See, that’s what community is about — recognizing common interests and supporting each other in our pursuits. At least it is to me.
So you say we’re not Austin, or even Chapel Hill. Go where the interest and action is, right?
You tell that to one of my friends. You tell them that if they want to make a living at their craft, they should uproot to find a “market” willing and able to support them.
These people aren’t suits, willing to constantly start over, moving from one town to another to make a better buck. They’ve invested time, energy and love to help shape this community and honestly love what they do while valuing their place here.
So they do what they have to do to get by.
Josephus Thompson III wrote an article, steeped in personal experience, about this very subject in GoTriad last week. He ended it as such:
[...] The Bible says, “Faith without works is dead,” so we work and keep the faith; we pray and we stay on the straight and narrow, traveling the unbeaten path believing we can make it and cascading through all the gray areas of the unknown, postponing or as Langston might say, deferring our dreams. So, we must not defer, we must not linger in our fantasies, but pursue our desires and our dreams. And at the end of the day we do, doing whatever it takes to get us through to the next stage of our lives — hopes, dreams and ambitions in tow. For we understand and know that we must do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do.
Sometimes, that notion becomes lost in the darkness of pursuit and struggle. I’ve experienced it myself. So to both the friends I’ve come to know over time and the creative souls I’ve yet to meet, I’ll let Josephus III take us out…
In The Morning
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We’ll get there.
