There are three main people I must give credit to for having a great impact on me and largely influencing my life and career direction. This of course includes my parents. The most Influential aspect from both of them is the continuous career progression and drive. My father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army before retiring. This is an extremely high rank that most people will not reach in their military careers. My mother is in education, starting out as a teacher. She is now currently the head administrator for special education for an entire private school district that includes most major cities in Texas. Even in her spare time my mother is always striving for the next big thing. For example, she was at one time a member of a motorcycle group she joined for fun. Not even two years later she somehow got herself in the position of planning and running the Texas State Motorcycle Rally which is a national event visited by people across the country. She also through this met leaders of motorcycle groups from other countries, traveled to learn from them, and still has huge connections from this side venture. Both of my parents are a huge drive as I feel obligated and inspired to find the same success in my own career. Another person I have to give major credit is renowned French artist, Gil Bruvel. Who I have mentioned often in this program due to the amount of influence he has had on me. Gil is a self-made artist who now is a multi-millionaire, has ridiculous connections, and mostly makes art and works from home. Aside from traveling around the world for his art and clients. I worked for Gil for a few years before moving, but I learned countless tips and lessons from his way of working and networking. Much of which has been verified by this program and continues to be impactful to me today and most likely throughout my life. These are the three people I admire most and feel almost obligated to try live up to their legacies. This is a big part of what motivates me intrinsically.
My other big motivation is my wife, who is my biggest supporter and my main team member. Although of course my parents and Gil are part of my team and support. It is my wife (and dogs) who I have been living and moving with around the country in support of each other’s careers. Without this stable base for both of us, it is hard to imagine were I might be at. The biggest aspect of this that allows us to support each other is that my wife is also an art professor and working artist. We share the connections and opportunities we make and has been considerably helpful to both of us. Although we inhabit slightly different areas in the visual arts, there’s plenty of overlap. Some of the biggest opportunities for both of us in our own careers have come from each other. This also allows us to share a mutual support team that we both add to and utilize for one another. For this reason, I’d say my life is fulfilling and well integrated with my passions and future goals. As long as these are my main focus’s and people in my life, it will continue to be authentic and motivating to me. Failing to maintain these aspects of art, creativity, and family in my career and life would be a failure to myself and the people who support me.
To help ensure that I am self-aware and continue to help direct my career appropriately, I have saved many of the reading from this course. I plan to continue to reference Kotter’s What Leaders Really Do. This text describes in detail the difference between managing, and leading. This is especially important because I sometimes find myself falling more into just the manager position in my work. Continuing to remember to balance Leadership and Management, as well as realizing the difference, will be key going forward. Combining these with my pursuit of developing my emotional intelligence goals is an essential goal I continue to pursue. I look to Daniel Goleman’s What Makes a Leader. This includes brief of emotional intelligence skills, including self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Of these social-skills, self-regulation, and motivation are skills I could benefit most from developing more over time. Lastly, when it comes to ensuring that I am self-aware, a big resource is Level 5 Leadership by Jim Collins. This helps categorize and reflect upon types of leaders based on skills, tendencies, interactions, and considerations made during leadership. Knowing that Level 5 leadership is the end goal, it is extremely useful as a reference source to gage where I would place myself throughout my career. It also is an excellent resource for specifying what changes and choices can help me evolve to the next level.
High Priority Values: Sustainable Income, Positive Attitude, Helping Others, Creativity, Mental health, and work life balance are always important values that effect my choices.
Continued Mission: Continue to build experience, connections, credibility, and emotional intelligence that allows for career momentum to continue to grow in position, responsibility, and income. In my career I am open to different visual arts management positions preferably working with artists, and artworks in a non-sales driven environment. I would do this until I am able to develop my own business and opportunities for myself and others. My end goal and what I am most interested in is being an artist and running a studio likely, along with my wife. Important considerations in being able to prioritize my own business includes being financially stable and not planning to move for a long period of time. Having this studio would give me the opportunity to help other artists, make my own schedule, and charge my own fees. I would imagine this is where I would truly find satisfaction in my work.
Overall Vision: Once established, my vision is to run my own art business confidently and effectively, allowing me to be able to provide opportunities for others. I would use this as an opportunity to rent space to artists, potentially hire studio assistance, offer internships, and artist residencies. Possibly even opening a related gallery to give more opportunity to the artist renting or in residency to show their work. Things like being an art consultant, artist manager, or even occasionally art handling or instillation are all things I am considering as sustainable side income when (and some before) I start my own studio. At least until the art sales and studio income is at a substantial enough to support the business’s needs.
Thomas Petty Portfolio 