What brought you to NYC?
I moved here to go to grad school at the New York Academy of Art. I come from a smaller southern city and wanted to experience something completely out of my element. I felt that all of this city's resources were also amazing for an emerging artist to learn from.
Why are you leaving NYC?
I have had no luck finding a job that would provide me enough of an income to not have to work another. I can't afford to work a temporary job to find another one, and I also don't want to stop making art just to make ends meet. Mainly it is lack of security and opportunities to someone who is highly educated with very little networking connections. I suppose my introverted nature is to blame for the last part. I can't compete with the constant self-promotion needed to make it here most of the time.
Where are you moving to?
Mobile, Alabama
Why did you choose that location?
It is my hometown and where my entire family lives, I need to get some balance before I can start up my post-graduate life. I can have my own place for a reasonable price and begin making a body of work in peace. It is also a beautiful place to live.
What will you miss LEAST about NYC?
The noise, lack of space, cost of living, having to live in an apartment with strangers to afford rent, seeing the disparity of the super rich and super poor so blatantly every day. On my less inspired days all I can see when I walk around the city is how much everything revolves around power and money. Even the contemporary art here.
What will you miss MOST about NYC?
My close-knit group of artist friends, being in a place where people are educated about art, museums, seeing different people everywhere everyday, wandering into interesting places, walking instead of driving, the sense that anything is possible while riding over the Williamsburg bridge from a night out with friends in the Lower East Side.
