‘Starving’ Still Applies to Educated Artists

Students earning degrees in pharmacy this year can expect job offers at $51,414 a year. Chemical engineers are getting an average $42,450.

But artists?

Every spring, 5,000 to 10,000 aspiring Picassos and Michelangelos emerge with degrees in fine arts from American colleges. Many face the same problem: how to eat regularly.

“They mostly have to go into business for themselves,” said Dawn Traub of the National Assn. of Colleges and Employers, which keeps job-offer statistics.

“There are no real job opportunities,” adds William Barrett, executive director of the Assn. of Independent Colleges of Art and Design in San Francisco.

“Nobody is going to hire you to be a sculptor.”

At the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, one of the country’s oldest and best known, the whole faculty tries to find students jobs that have at least some relation to art--even if it is just as a guard in a museum.

They do not always succeed. Some new “bachelors of fine arts” wait on tables. A few have hired out as house painters.

“At least it’s manual work,” said Samuel Hoi, dean of the Corcoran school.

Aurora Rincon, 36, got a degree in sculpture in 1995 from the Corcoran but has a long way to go before she can make a living from her work. She has sold about 10 works in the last two years at prices of $800 to $4,000. She showed 26 pieces in May at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington--and sold none.

The priciest sculptures, those in bronze, cost a great deal to cast--leaving little for the artist. Rincon also teaches sculpture to handicapped children one day a week, but says such jobs are getting harder to find.

“I’m fortunate to have a husband who understands and loves my work,” she said.

Some graduates teach. The College Art Assn. in New York carried 1,004 help-wanted ads last year in its magazine. The advertising manager says most were teaching jobs.

A lecturer or instructor could hope for $28,250. But there were, on average, 87 applicants for each arts teaching position, many with experience.

Eventually, some students achieve a measure of success.

Colby Caldwell, 31, worked as an assistant to a commercial photographer for five years after he got his degree in 1990. Now he gets only 25% of his income from commercial jobs and manages to spend most of his time doing work to sell through art galleries.

But Caldwell adds: “I pay for my freedom. I made my decision. I have no health insurance, no car. I live in a group house.”

Most beginners cannot make a living without some other, practical skill to offer, said Ellouise Schoettler, former president of the Maryland College of Art and Design. She tells artists young and old to get started in a systematic way.

Her first advice is not to rush it. An unseasoned 22-year-old may have skills but no substance. She figures it takes two to six years for a student to develop a distinctive style, breaking away from the routines learned at school.

At that point, she advises, an artist can start hitting the commercial art galleries; a link to an art gallery with its regular customers is almost a necessity.

If no gallery bites--and it may take a long time to find one that will--work can be shown in restaurants, shop windows, offices or banks, she says.

“It’s important for artists to get some feedback,” she said, “even if it’s only from standing around and overhearing comments from visitors.”

At 60, Schoettler considers herself an example--someone who has continued to paint throughout a teaching and lecturing career. “Remember,” she said, “if you really want to do it, it’s never over.”