I am the multimedia/creative coordinator for exhibits at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I’ve been here 11 years and have about 18 years experience to my career as a professional artist. I’ve done a lot of different things over the years; from movie set work, to diorama and prop fabrication and now graphics and short films. Heck, I’ve even dabbled with computer controlled light shows and robotic tour guides…
Other people have always considered me an “artist”, even when I was a child. This is a title I never felt I deserved until recently. You see, as a child and a teen what I did I just considered fun and a hobby and never took it as serious as the other “artists” that were my peers. Even though EVERYONE always said I was going to “grow up and be an artist someday” I wanted to be a soldier. When I turned 17 I went into a recruitment station and spent over an hour with a sergeant picking out a branch of service. Pen in hand and ½” from the contract for the “year delay plan” (do they still do that?) I suddenly had a serious thought.
I asked myself if I could kill people. I don’t mean kill people trying to kill me…I meant kill period, let’s face it, there is a lot of undeserved death doled out in war, it’s the nature of the beast, and I wondered how I would feel about that. At that time there were no immanent threats other than the cold war and if that happened it’d be “sunrise in the west, even though the day was done…”
Well, I decided I wanted to wait and see what other options life held…heck I was only 17!!
By the age of 18 I was in Art School, I wanted to follow the advice that some of the adults I respected had given me. They had all told me I was the “type of person that if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll go nuts!” The only thing I really liked to do other than read a lot and hang with my buddies playing war games (which I still love) was creating dioramas. The only place I knew that made those was the Carnegie…I had a new goal.
Now here I am, 11 years of service to the Carnegie. As I’ve said, I was able to make those dioramas for a living but in 1997 I realized that in the new century that was bearing down making fake rocks and trees just wasn’t going to make it. I went back to school for computer animation/multimedia. Now I do that sort of thing here. Of course, I see an end to that someday so I went back to school again and have just graduated with a BS in industrial design. I want to get my Masters next…
As for being an “Artist” (note the capital “A” LOL!), it wasn’t until I began my PAD last September that I feel I’ve begun to actually develop as one. I know it must seem odd that someone who creates for a living thinks that something like this makes me feel like an “Artist.” You see, what I do for a living is just that, a living. I enjoy it and it’s interesting but it’s not something I want to do outside of work.
I don’t shoot photos as work so the experience is all mine. I also have complete control over how and what I shoot. At the museum, everything is “designed by committee.” For the first time ever I actually feel that I may someday become that “Artist” they always said I was going to grow up to be.
Of course, it will be a long time before I feel I can actually call myself that…
(SORRY FOR THE BOOK!!!!!)
My resume can be accessed here:
http://www.coroflot.com/LutzR2