I am an art historian. Have I ever told you that? I don't remember. I know that I've alluded to my *useless degrees. (*I mean that in the best possible way. That is to say, art and art history are wonderful and interesting courses of study, but they rarely pay the bills.) Anyhoo, I seriously got burned out while pursuing the doctorate, and could no longer stomach the stuff. It just wasn't fun anymore, felt like work (same thing with reading...). Didn't step foot in a museum, except to have lunch with my Visual Resources peeps N & D (see you next week ladies!).
Fast forward to this week, and the annual gathering of regional art historians in a convention-like setting held this year in my fair town. I used to always go to this thing, back in the day when I had mad love for it. I even presented a paper once, in Chicago, 1998 ("Influences of the Decadent Movement in the Art Nouveau Jewelry of Rene Lalique".) That cracks me up, hard to believe that I presented a paper in front of a audience of almost 100 people (people with PhD's!!!)!!! But I can't remember the last one I went to, I just wasn't interested once I went into burn-out mode.
So last week, one of the professors in my department asked if I wanted to go since we're hosting it, I thought, "why not. I'm not paying for it. Plus I get a day out of the office."
You know what? I had fun. It was energizing! All the papers were interesting and I learned a few things I didn't know before. I saw a lot of friends and colleagues I hadn't seen in some time!
And as it turns out, one of my BFFs was presenting a paper! (Little stinker didn't say anything until the last minute!) It was a very good day.
And the best thing, I like art history again!
But no, I am not going back to school to finish the doctorate. You can't make me.
All for now,
Nugget
No comments:
Post a Comment