When I was at the Academy of Art University one of my teachers, whom was a well respected artist as well as teacher, told his intermediate anatomy class that only 1% of us would make it as sculptors. This perked my ears up. It was meant to discourage I think, but got me curious about sculpture. I started researching what my teacher was creating artistically, his past works, education, etc which then introduced me to other sculptors works which led to me signing up for more sculpture classes. Essentially what this one statement did was challenge me and get me curious about a field that was apparently difficult to get into. This curiosity led to my passion which led to developing the necessary skills as a sculptor.
When someone says something negative regarding generalizations one must look at why they would say such a thing and challenge it. If it is not proven challenge it, if it is proven challenge it anyways! You must always try to prove people wrong! Eventually you will find your passion and the people that support you no matter what; learn to embrace them and bring them into your life. Surround yourself with those that recognize your passions. The others respectfully discard and do not allow them to make choices for you! When you surround yourself with these supportive people you can begin to take the necessary criticism seriously as you begin to know them and they begin to know you. A general comment coming from a frustrated artist/teacher who maybe was rejected over a project is someone you cannot trust and you should not make decisions based off of someone who had a bad day!
As I got older I remembered what my teacher had told me, but it got me thinking more and more about sculpture. I became more and more curious about it, although I didn't realize it I was training myself for becoming a sculptor. After sculpting a few pieces soon after college I decided to apply for a job as a halloween mask maker. To my surprise I was hired. I was fortunate to be hired by someone who was incredibly ambitious, very talented, managed a multi-million dollar halloween company CMN Enterprises and Illusive Concepts, and quite simply was an amazing and inspirational man-and he believed in me enough to hire me. His name was Mario Chiodo. Mario trained me with the tricks of sculpting in the halloween industry and eventually pulling me aside to work with him and his clients directly as he created a second sculpture business: life size sculptures for the Las Vegas Hotel industry which was booming in the late 90's. Mario had me drawing and making small maquettes as designs for large sculptures for hotel lobbies and courtyards. This, in turn, led to me going to Italy (at Mario's suggestion) which cemented my desire to become a sculptor. I have not looked back since!
I had a lot of support in the arts beginning when I was a young child, but there has always been challenges and for every person who supported me I was dealt a handful of rejections and doubts. This is simply how the universe works when making a decision: testing us and once we've passed the test, supporting us and eventually being tested all over again followed by support. My decision to ignore these people and their unsupportive statements and by bringing in the necessary support in my life as a young artist was telling the Universe "hey, I WANT to be a sculptor!!" And the Universe supported that once I learned to overcome the challenges and doubts. Although there are still challenges and doubts, now I look at them differently.
