Working Class. 006/100
My father was part of the working class and my grandfather too, my uncles as well. Most of the men in my family turned wrenches for a living or did some sort of construction job, Hard, dirty and honest respectable work and I have always admired that. My father and I are not close and haven’t been since I was a young kid, a divorce and thousands of miles have separated us and that’s o.k, we are different types of people and neither of us are sad about it. I do admire my dad in just a few ways though, he instilled a good work ethic into me and he doesn’t even know it.
For Context:
I watched my father go to work EVERY single day even though he acted like he hated his job, he went to support his family. I saw that as a kid and looking back as an adult I admire that. Granted my Dad seemed like he was in a bad mood most of the time and I think his job had a good bit to do with why he was so bitter and cold most of the time. I don’t think he hated the hard work, I think he hated the people he worked with/for.That’s what I remember him complaining about all the time, he had four kids he couldn’t just switch jobs or quit.
My Mother didn’t work in the traditional sense, she was a stay at home Mom. That didn’t help with my Dad’s stress because 6 people on one income is a lot to worry about. My Dad was sort of creative but he let his stress slowly consume that, he could build stuff, my grandmother to this day has a huge gun cabinet in her house that my father built when he was in high school, its an amazing piece of furniture. I never saw him work on anything like that or even have a hobby for longer than a year when I was a kid though. My mom was the more creative one, the reason I got into horror and eventually filmmaking. I grew up watching The Twilight Zone and The Munsters with her, fond memories. My Mom was great until alcoholism ate her alive. My Dad worked all the time, so my Mom drank a lot, my Dad worked a lot because my Mom drank a lot, it was a vicious cycle for about 5 years until they finally called it quits for the 2nd time.
I knew growing up that I never wanted to be burdened by a job that I hated because I saw what happened to my Father, coming home in a bad mood everyday. I refused to do it. I knew I had to do something different
Spending a lot of time alone as a kid, I fell in love with art and being creative. I would sit in my room and draw all hours of the night and read comic books. ( this was the early & mid 90s) this eventually lead to a life of tattooing in my early adulthood. I envied and admired tattoo artists and musicians because of their artistic and creative lifestyles, polar opposite to what I grew up seeing.
THE CREATIVE WORKING CLASS:
The working class has a pretty clear definition but to me it means: you part of the 99%, do you have to go to a job full time to pay your bills? Then you are working class. I would normally reserve the term for those that only work blue collar jobs but honestly desk jockeys deal with some of the worst working conditions I have ever witnessed believe it or not.
I never realized that so many creative people, cameramen,writers, artists and musicians were part of the 99%. Traveling and working all year long just to make ends meet. I have done all sorts of work in my life farmhand, laborer, electrician,warehousing, tattoo artist, photographer and filmmaker. The creative jobs being my favorite obviously, when it comes to work I really only feel fulfilled and get satisfaction from creative work. However when I chose to go down the professional creative path I never knew how hard it was to make a living from it. Freelancing as a creative can be absolute hell. You are undoubtedly part of the 99% and you are undoubtedly part of the working class.
When you spend time on any film or TV set you realize how its very similar to being on a construction site. You have the set builders, the gaffers,grips and camera department among others. All of these individuals are tradespeople and most of them approach their jobs in that way. It’s not glitzy and glamour its hard work, dirty work but instead of building a mall or a stadium all of these people come together to create art.They all just want to make their money and go home, finish the show and hopefully get on another production right away to keep cash flowing.
This can even be defined as people that split their time between a job and creating on the side, creating for the sake of making art. I heard a great quote and I’m not sure who said it but it is
I don’t make art to make money I make money to make more art.
That is the best of both worlds to me, the creative and the working class. It’s essentially everything I saw my father do growing up but done in my world, the creative one. I am proud to be a working class creator, because its hard honest work and I feel accomplished.
I wish the younger generation of filmmakers and photographers would harness that idea of being part of the creative working class instead of focusing on being influencers and personalities in the industry, we need the dedicated and highly skilled tradespeople in the industry.
That’s my thoughts on that.
Stay Rad,
DREWxCIFER