Episode 5 is artist and series creator Amy discusses her experiences as an artist, her disability, and advice to other artists, as well as, show promotors. Amy includes her own story for context of the series and why this project is important to her and Tanner.

How can I be an artist and filmmaker too when I have invisible disabilities?

I noticed when talking to other artists and crafters, it can be a hard sell to tell them I make videos as well, and try to get them involved in my projects. I started making videos on YouTube (we are almost at 500k views!), with my husband hosting them and providing input, because I didn’t know where to start.

Yes, there are film schools and groups out there, but I couldn’t go the traditional route. It’s mostly because I have an invisible disability, and the days or weeks where it can be tolerable or terrible and it’s totally unpredictable. Because of that, it can be weeks where I don’t leave the house and I have no choice but to learn things from home.

I can’t commit to showing up to volunteer for others’ films or go to a school that teaches these types of things on a daily or weekly basis. What TELUS STORYHIVE offered was an accessible option to those who really wanted to make video and film, and the traditional route was not an option.

They provide mentorship, one-on-one advice, training and a massive group of people who have solved the problem I need to solve or we can use a group mentality to solve it.

For the first series, I had major problems with my health. My mentor from STORYHIVE helped me along the way and made sure they did not leave me behind. How many schools would do that? Unfortunately, people with some sort of health issue need to work on their own schedule. They can get the work done, but may have a schedule that able-bodied people are not used to. For me, I usually feel better in the afternoons and evenings and not a lot of schools or businesses are available at 6 pm. 

I firmly believe people can be good at and capable of doing multiple careers in their lives and at the same time. The adage of “only doing one thing and doing it well” is terribly outdated and no one really does that if you think about it.

People who are photographers, tend to be social media experts, entrepreneurs and take on many other hats while being in business. While at an event, over the weekend, I met so many people who did multiple jobs. One was an MLA and Film critic. Those are both pretty enormous hats to fill, but if you have more than 1 passion, why not go for it?

Why does it help for me to be a visual artist, who sells their work, and filmmaker?

There are many films and docuseries out there about artists. My husband has seen many and I’ve seen even more! One key thing the filmmakers who are not professional artists tend to do is to leave out is the empathy towards the artist. They often portray the artist, featured in the series, just going out and successfully completing their job/contract/work. There may be a few minor bumps along the way, but typically it doesn’t really capture the truly difficult, and often discouraging, nature of the artists’ vocation.

The struggle of being an artist and selling your work is monumental. To share your work and convince people it’s just as nice and as well made as something you can find in a store is something only an artist understands.

I try to capture the difficulties in the first series of Crafting a Professional Career and it’s why I included the community resources. I didn’t know about many of these resources when I first started selling my work. Often when thinking about selling your work as an artist, you may not think of it as a business and may not approach places like the Alberta Women’s Entrepreneurs, which is a not-for-profit organization who helps women’s businesses succeed. I had seen they had offered a free build your business plan workshop, years ago, and I signed up to go. Unfortunately, it was one of those days where I couldn’t go because of having “no spoons left” that day, so Tanner went for me. The help the AWE provided changed my way of thinking about how I sold my art and how I structured everything I did. By being a visual artist, who is trying to earn a living making art, and a filmmaker who wants to share the stories of other artists experience, as well as my own, I’m better able to understand the struggles an artist faces daily. Because I understand the difficulties artists face first hand, I know how I can offer advice or assistance to try to help alleviate their pain points I had when starting out. I am also in the position to ask the questions of organizations and community supports that I had when I was starting out, but didn’t know where to go on behalf of upcoming artists. In turn, I include the answers in my film projects so new artists, or those feeling a bit lost, can refer to it and hopefully find some sort of guidance to point them towards the resources they need. In my series, I ask the featured artists for their advice so I can share it with new artists as many new artists would not have access to more seasoned artists or may be uncomfortable to march up and ask them for a bunch of advice.