A Life of Art and Peanut Butter

This afternoon, the Class of 1988 will graduate from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. They are dancers, musicians and actors who have spent years studying at one of the most respected art schools in the nation.

Were they departing from UCLA with a business degree, or USC with a medical degree, these students might soon be joining a major corporation or successful partnership. A career in art is less certain.

Some of CalArts’ 230 graduates have been hired by dance companies, galleries and motion-picture studios. And the institute helps others look for jobs and internships. But the majority of graduates, say school officials, haven’t found work yet and won’t in the near future. They are looking ahead to working as janitors and waitresses while pursuing a dream.

There simply aren’t enough entry-level positions for film makers, Minimalist painters and Post-Modern sculptors.

“We never hold out a job as a carrot for coming here,” said John Orders, the executive assistant to the president at CalArts. “To be an artist is to be driven by some inner need. We know how much sacrifice it takes.”

Or, as another school official put it, “You’re not Andy Warhol the minute you get a degree.”

Graduating students say they aren’t surprised or disappointed by the shortage of employment possibilities. Below, six of them discuss the future, the real world and peanut butter.

Bob Clendenen has spent eight years studying music composition. The 26-year-old came to CalArts from Atlanta by way of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Having earned a master’s of fine arts, he has applied for a part-time position as a production stage manager at the institute, but has no other job leads.

“I wouldn’t suggest this to other people. Ask them if they want to eat peanut butter and Campbell’s soup for the rest of their lives, which is all I’ve been eating for the last eight years. And I realize that as soon as I graduate, life is going to be twice as hard as it has been.

“My philosophy is that I’m going to try to make a living at what I’ve been trained to do, composing classical and jazz music. I’ll have to survive working other jobs. I’ve worked in the labor union as a carpenter’s helper. I’ve worked as an all-night janitor, and in a music store.

“My dream job would be to get a phone call from CBS giving me a recording contract with full artistic control because they trusted me and were willing to take a chance on art instead of pop culture. Is there any work I wouldn’t do in music? Not at this point. Actually, I probably wouldn’t conduct a church choir. I don’t have a good voice.”

Aaron Alpern came to Los Angeles from Michigan. While earning a master’s degree, the husky, soft-spoken actor appeared in school plays and a student film that was shown on cable television. For 15 weeks this summer, he’ll join the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria for a three-play series. After that, the 26-year-old will be on his own.

“My family’s been pretty supportive, but my father is, like, ‘How are you going to make a living?’ I don’t think he understands that this is my craft and how I plan on making a living. He’s waiting for me to crash and burn, then pick up the pieces.

“It’s tough when you have get-togethers with college or high school friends. They’re very successful, they have cars and families. I have a friend who is going to start an assistant professorship at Berkeley in economics. I have another friend who’s a computer scientist who makes $35,000 a year. Getting married and having a steady job are two things that just aren’t going to be possible for me for a long time.

“Actually, I have a good friend who I encouraged to come to this school next year. I think that if somebody wants to act and they have the talent, you have to encourage it. I couldn’t discourage people just because it’s tough and painful and awful, because it’s also real important and wonderful and exciting. It’s why I live.”

Judith Hawking is hot right now. Last month, the 25-year-old Canadian actress won a national drama competition at the Kennedy Center in New York City. She can be seen on HBO in a short film called “Home Run” and she’ll miss graduation today because she’s landed a temporary role in the NBC soap opera “Santa Barbara.” Hawking received a number of offers coming out of CalArts, and has decided to spend the summer appearing in the Grove Shakespeare Festival in Garden Grove. After that, she has an offer to join an ensemble company at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts for eight months.

“Eight months of solid work for an actor is pretty darn good.

“Casting directors like actors who are hungry but who aren’t desperate. If you come in and you say, ‘I haven’t eaten in five weeks,’ there’s a tendency to think you want it too bad. I’m finding there’s a fine line between being hungry for something and being in the starvation line.

“When I went into the ‘Santa Barbara’ thing, I read the script and it was very campy. I didn’t want to read it campy and offend people but the other half of me said, ‘Nobody could take this dialogue seriously.’ So I ended up going with what my heart said to do, which was to make her funny. I went with my instincts and I ended up getting the role. But I think that what allowed me to be funny is that I have a job. I wasn’t going to die if I didn’t get that part.

“I’m young and idealistic enough to believe that even if I have buck teeth and my nose is too big when I turn to the right, I can still get the part. But talk to me in two years when I haven’t worked and I’ve got my plane ticket back to Calgary and I’m totally depressed.

“It’s funny because my parents are coming from Calgary to see my graduation and I won’t be here because I have to film that day. So my mom’s accepting my diploma for me which I think is really cool. Graduation is a big deal to my mother because I’m getting a master’s. So what if it’s in acting. She’ll just tell everybody it’s a master’s.”

Jinger Heffner, 26, earned her bachelor’s degree at CalArts and then worked for a year designing interiors for McDonald’s restaurants. “That wasn’t really my art,” she recalled. The Hermosa Beach native left the job and returned to school two years ago to study for a master’s.

“I got serious about art in kindergarten.

“I started out as a painter because I wanted to tell stories about certain things, little places where little dramas could take place. When I got here, I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I just make them?’ I had a period of making interior environments. I moved into life-sized sculpture. I’m working in a furniture genre right now. . . . I’m using the furniture as a stand-in for the family unit. You can sit on my furniture, get into it.

“This isn’t a job-training school at all. When I came back here for my master’s I was definitely certain that was the case and I chose to come back anyway.

“Getting a job that’s going to pay you enough money to live comfortably and support your art is sort of unreasonable. So I don’t really expect to start out strong. I’m really strong in the fine arts, but as far as employability goes, I don’t type so great. I can go toward the teaching end, although that’s really crummy money. Or I can go into arts management, as a gallery assistant.

“Like I said, I chose art in kindergarten. They told me you can’t be an artist because you won’t make any money. They were right. But that’s what I want to do.

“What I care about is my art work. I’m betting on my art career to pay off.”

Scott Ault was hired into a prestigious job the week before graduation. The 22-year-old earned a bachelor’s degree from CalArts’ school of Performing Arts Design and Technology, which specializes in such technical aspects as drafting, set design and lighting. Graduates from this particular school are in great demand--this year, 25 of 29 departing students had jobs by graduation day. Ault will work as an “imagineer” for Disney, helping to design a new section in one of the company’s theme parks.

“Ever since I was 6, when I went to Disney World, I’ve always said I want to work for those people. Right now, I’m not sure what I’ll be making because we haven’t talked about salary, but I’m hoping to make $25,000 to $30,000.

“I started out as a genetic engineer at Ohio State. I was required to take a theater class and the only thing I could fit into my schedule was a makeup design class. I took it and the professor gave me an assistant design position on a show. I decided it was for me.

“I’d never really heard of CalArts. I did a little bit of research and found out it was a great school. I applied in July, was accepted in August and they said ‘Can you be out here in two weeks to start classes?’

“A lot of the stuff that I learned here was drafting. A lot of the jobs they’re hiring for require that. If they see you can do drafting, you’re in.

“People at this school consider us ‘techies.’ Some people consider it a bad word, but I don’t think it is. Being a technician is an art within itself. Once you see some of your work up on stage . . . there’s not another feeling like it. There’s a lot of ego involved. And you make a livable wage doing it.”

Emily Goodman is moving home, to Manhattan. Having earned a bachelor’s degree in dance, the 23-year-old is hoping to catch on with a dance company. She says she’s prepared to struggle along until she can get a job in the arts.

“I’ve changed a lot since I came here. I’ve become a dancer. CalArts teaches you how to take care of yourself, it gives you strength. You learn how to look at movement in a different way.

“I’m going to go back to New York City and go to as many auditions as I can. I’m not really scared. I’m ready to go do something. . . . I’m all charged up. I would like to work in a company, with someone I respect, and eventually I want to do my own choreography.

“I’m going to waitress at the beginning and I make sweaters, so I’ll sell sweaters. I sort of know what I’m up against better than the other people. Before I came to CalArts, I took a year off school and just lived and supported myself and partied.

“I don’t even think about money. You can’t make money as a dancer. At a good company, you could get paid $250 every other week. And they only pay you 25 weeks out of the year. Even the big companies, that’s all they can afford.

“I’m excited to go back to New York. I know that’ll probably change when I get back there and see how things go.”