Stepping Back From Teaching Art
- Alexis Robinson
- Apr 8
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 23
A Cost Benefit Analysis Of My Career As A Self-Employed Fine Artist
April 8th, 2025
Introduction
Over the last year I realized that something needed to change. I am chronically busy and the endless planning and careful scheduling has demolished my ambition. My studio practice struggled last year and my professinoal growth has stalled. In the new year, I reflected on my time as a teacher, intentionally weighing the benefits versus effort and contemplating what I want out of the latter half of my twenties.
Needless to say the conclusion was panic inducing and painfully clear that I woefully overcommitted and blew past burnout. Teaching six days a week could not continue into 2025 even though it is something I am passionate about. The commute is killing me, the near constant emotional responsibility feels debilitating, and I am losing my sanity carefully time blocking my every minute to maximize the most valuable currency, time. My limits are breached and change is happening.
At the beginning of February I gathered my courage to initiate dropping my teaching hours. This was a big decision and very scary. Teaching, although not perfect, has helped me gain my footing over the last year and offered a bit more stability while I tried to figure out my next career move. I recognize my ability to drop hours comes from a place of luck and privilege, something that I want to be transparent about. Working in the arts is hard, normal jobs don't exist which means every position and career move is risky. As an artist I am constantly weighing my investments and asking myself which is more valuable time or money, until now money has been more important but my life has shifted and now it’s time. I need time more than anything so I can step back into an explorative role and embrace my inexperience as a professional and learn how to improve myself.
Since we are on the topic of careers and inevitably money, it is imperative to acknowledge the privileges people in the arts often hide- and acknowledge my own luck.
Don’t be fooled by the self made artist, all successful creatives have invisible supports and a good stoke of luck behind their achievements; too many in this field are jaded to that reality, and it’s a disservice to young professionals.
It would be dishonest of me not to address my own lucky breaks. I feel that I have some authority to speak on the matter, I grew up in a poor town, in unusual circumstances, and my peers and myself faced real struggles that would test even the most stable adults.
At the core, I got lucky, my artistic passion was fostered by equally passionate and kind teachers. I was equally as lucky to attend (at the time) a top ranked private university with scholarship assisted by unexpected financial support; and at that school, I was taught how to navigate insular, wealthy communities where I often felt alienated, underrepresented, and alone. My life course changed completely with a good stroke of luck, if life dealt different cards I know I wouldn't be able to make the choices I can now as a creative. Unspoken privileges in the arts deserves its own future article so back to the promised break down.
Irreversible Changes Are Just That Irreversible
Before making any irreversible changes to my position, I consulted as many individuals as I could with experience in the arts, and in true fashion consulted my mother, who above all is a pragmatist. I could count on her to give me the most uninhibited advice and an outside perspective on the situation. I shared my story and metrics and received the same advice over and over, from everyone, “if you can afford to do it, drop your hours”.
I am a metric driven person which probably stems from my background in psychology; alongside the sage advice, I needed to break down the problem and give myself some numbers to solidify my findings. For those interested here is how I broke down my cost benefit which ultimately led me to cut down my time in the classroom .
The Break-Down of What Caused My Breakdown
My decision to cut back on teaching was deeply personal and firmly rooted in my personal goals and aspirations and has nothing to do with my job overall. Teaching is fun, exciting, and rewarding, there is a reason I have persisted so long with the six day commitment. I am truly passionate about the arts and equally passionate about sharing my love with inquisitive learners, this step has been very challenging.
The decision was a multi-month process where I carefully considered the positives and negatives of my current professional life. It was not a decision I took lightly and as you will see, I meticulously analyzed all aspects of my job to gather a clear picture of the costs and benefits of teaching. My time spent teaching has been valuable and I am grateful to have been given this opportunity to educate young artists and I know I will continue to do so in the future, but just in a different capacity. I teach amazing students alongside equally amazing co-educators.
For the last year and a half as a self-employed teacher I have been commuting six days a week, spending approximately twelve hours commuting. I instruct for twenty to twenty five hours weekly depending on the needs of the business and sometimes less depending on the season or if the contract renews for my classes (which depends on student enrollment and given our current economic situation has been volatile since the election).
If you average my instruction time, my paid work is about four hours and sixteen minutes a day and my commute average is two hours a day, and on average I spend one to two hours on prep and other tasks that improve the experience of my students. Eight hours of my working day is occupied by the needs of my contracted classes, which is significant amount of time.
I know commuting is not generally added into your working hours, but for this situation I feel it's important to include in the total time spent on the job. It’s time I can’t get back and a relatively stressful part of my day, I commute via public transit to a city that has purposely hostile transits routes. What takes the average Seattlite twenty five minutes to drive can take me two hours by bus. The time spent commuting is a big hinderance to my day and complicates the prospect of finding a second job to help level the income gap and advance my future prospects, the leading reason I cut down on hours. For perspective, thirty percent of my work day is spent commuting, an issue that I can no longer ignore and is simply the fault of decades of poor city planning, something that cannot be easily adapted or changed by any invested party. Again, overall love the job, but the commute often times moves me to frustrated tears and really complicated life.
I did the math, and accounting for the time and effort put into my current position and the extra effort I put in to improve the learning experince in my classes, my total dedicated hours for the position is around thirty- forty hours a week (classes vary heavily season to season). I have struggled in the past to place time constraints on my classroom activities, it's hard when you want to give your students the world and your job is a passion. As it is currently, compensation covers about sixty percent of those hours which I feel has been fair for the outlined duties of my job. I struggle to not add in the extra effort, which is wholly a personal issue regarding boundaries, and I can't cut down on the commute. As I said earlier, the emotional responsibility and commute have really taken a toll on my ability to achieve.
On my own accord, I have needed to stretch that sixty percent and it's not working. Putting my career goals aside, it is obvious that I need to change my working situation so I can take better control of my time and commit to a second job and other opportunities I have been passing up because I over-committed in the classroom. I needed to set a structure in place to ensure adherence for my own future benefit, and that meant cutting hours. I want a more fruitful career which can support a meaningful lifestyle with my partner, and although I love teaching I can't keep up with my own life while continuing on at the current capacity.
After all the math, I had what I was looking for to solidify this decision and knew that I, without doubt, needed to change my teaching schedule for my own financial future and career. I don’t know any business, especially in the arts, that would hire someone who could only commit to two-three hours a day Monday through Friday exclusively in the morning with no flexibility. And I am not an individual who would be able to work twelve hour days and still take care of myself. If I continued teaching at capacity, while taking on a very necessary second job, I would be working twelve hour days, six days a week, it feels exhausting just to write it.
For me right now in my life, time is my most valuable asset and I couldn't afford to keep giving away time freely and overcommiting while neglecting my own pressing career crisis and future financial matters. I assessed my finances, found other work opportunities that aligned with my long term goals, and braced for the scary but necessary drop in teaching- knowing that I would rather struggle now in my mid twenties when financial responsibility is lower, than in a few years when I can’t guarantee I will have the same flexibility and the good fortune I have now.
I have now cut down my teaching hours to two days a week and the boundary has really improved my overall professional experience allowing me the time to take on more work closer to home that aligns with my life plans. I now have the opportunity to explore and make connections with galleries and artists around the city, participate in important events, and enthusiastically say yes to new ventures and offers. I even attended my second art walk in Seattle and was able to meet some really spectacular creatives. I have landed in a really great spot where I still get to do something I love while also allowing room for growth.
some of my favorite works from the art walk
Final Thoughts
It has felt impossible to advance my career growth outside of teaching and I have reached the apex in my current role and want more. I never see myself leaving art education completely, I find great satisfaction supporting and educating younger artists and I am thankful I can continue teaching twice weekly. My dream job would be a professorship teaching studio arts or working in a museums educational department, and if I want to move toward that goal I need more experience and opportunity outside of early childhood education.
I hope you find value in the experiences and insights I have gained over the last year working as a self-employed teacher. I wanted to clarify that I am certainly not advising you on your career and finances with this article, and please don’t think I am trying to sell you an idealized life of the wayward creative whose artistic career takes precedent over all professional sensibility. I promise that is not my goal, and I would in fact dissuade you from leaving a good stable W2 job in the pursuit of art in this economy. I pulled a strange set of cards after I gradated and somehow ended up begrudgingly self-employed, which has lead me down a crazy path. I am sure there are many of you who can relate, which is the true reason I wrote this article. I want to bring more transparency to art careers and share what I can to support those experiencing similar challenges in their professional life and cultivate a more candid arts community that doesn’t shy away from these realities.
Above all this article is really about the process of taking calculated risks as a creative, recognizing your own potential, and remembering that you and your professional goals are important and valuable. Your goals are valuable, don't let your own passion hold you back from success, For me, I went too deep into my passion for teaching and forgot the plot of my own novel in the process of writing it.
Teaching is an awesome way to work in the arts, but as artists we need to remember that education in the arts is often for profit and both salaries and hours have a ceiling. To see success we need to diversify our experiences and skills which takes time alongside excellent boundaries to defend against time theft. The average hourly salary for an art teacher in Seattle is twenty five to thirty dollars and let us be real momentarily, all the opportunities are part-time, at least in my education sector. That salary is not livable, you can't live on that in Seattle or any major city. So, aggressively protect your time and make sure you don't spend it overfilling another's cup- because you too have a cup, and an empty pitcher, wet soppy shoes, and a puddle certainly won't fill it.
Like many in their mid twenties I am still learning and this new chapter could be a huge disaster. But I know I would rather take the calculated risk now when I have the flexibility and opportunity to do so. The future is vague, time is expensive, and life is too short to dally away your value and ambition for immediate rewards or someone else's dreams.
Thank you for reading and I hope your week is filled with exploration and excitement!
Warmly,
Alexis
Painter on the Page
Reading Recommendations
If you would like to learn more about art careers in our current world. I recommend reading “The Death of the Artist” By William Deresiewicz. It is an excellent analysis on the history of creative employment and its transformation to fit our current economy- which glorifies bohemian creatives while dissuading investment into cultural institutions by disenfranchising artists through predatory contract work, free labor, and high costs of living- all wrapped under the guise of improving access to the arts. It’s a eye opening read that really helped me navigate this career change, come to terms with what my career will probably look like, and brace for the next few years of challenges as I work toward my goals. I seriously can't recommend this enough, if you care about the arts (ie you listen to music, you read novels, you love museums) you need to read this book.
Recommended Book Store
Affiliate Links
If you are interested in supporting me as an artist I am a Blick affiliate; which means if you use any of my links to purchase art supplies at Blick Online I will receive a 10% commission at no cost to you, which helps me continue to afford to create art and run this blog!
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