In this series of blogs, I will be analysing the realities of living as an artist, describing my future aspirations and how they have been shaped by my time on Sound Arts BA and describing how I will attempt to contextualise my work outside of the Sound Arts BA.
In this first blog, I will be discussing the realities of living as a young artist in London as I must establish a contextual basis of which difficulties I may face when continuing my practice after finishing the BA, in order to ensure that my future aspirations and aims for contextualising my work are realistic.
Firstly, financial difficulties have been a major issue during my time at LCC, I have consistently had to work jobs in hospitality and borrow money during my time as a student in order to attempt financial stability. This has impeded my progress as a student and an artist, as working hours often overlap with university lectures, performances or opportunities to develop my practice. The hours I work often leave me drained and tired, which also interferes with how available I am to commit to working as an artist. Borrowing money is something that I have needed to do in order to afford rent and continue my studies; however, it contributes greatly to financial anxiety and general anxiety that I will not be able to live. I currently owe around £4,000 and am sitting at the bottom of a £2,000 overdraft.
These personal experiences all tell me that financial stability is something I will need to achieve in order to develop and continue my practice outside of university. With the cost of living in London being so extreme currently, I will need to work a full-time job to achieve the financial stability which will allow me to continue my practice. I have secured a full-time job delivering workshops in fashion retail, which pays the London living wage. This job will allow me to slowly pay back my debts, climb out of my overdraft and live comfortably at the same time whilst putting money into freelance sound design and a guitar pedal business.
In order to manage tax whilst working a full time job and in the future receiving income from freelance sound design and a guitar pedal business, I will follow the advice given to me by industry expert Steve who delivered a business basics lecture by securing an accountant to manage PAYE income tax and income tax from freelance work until I reach a point when running my own businesses works a full time endeavour, then I will pay my taxes myself without the help of an accountant.