Life is too short to remain unnoticed.

— Salvador Dali

Artist’s Careers, Portfolios & Websites

Welcome!

Stress

Planning your life and career can be stressful. Don’t be over-stressed! Let’s hop on Zoom anytime and talk. Stressful stuff talked through is almost always less stressful.

You are The Player

Have you been watching House of the Dragon this summer? In episode six, there’s a scene where Alys Rivers tells Daemon Targaryan,

You are not the player, but a piece on the board.

Alys’ insight is a powerful one for Daemon, and for many situations we face in life. But it’s not the right insight for you as an Art 490 student! For you now, it’s the exact opposite:

You are the player!

I’m a coach on the sideline. I hope I can offer advice that helps you feel confident and do your best. I believe that there is an art career for you if you want it. But the ball is in your hands, not mine. I’ll give you all the help I can. But you must move the ball down the field toward your goal.

Making Resolutions

I feel like not following New Year’s Resolutions is so cliche that we don’t even bother to make them anymore. We already know we won’t keep them.

Why do NY Resolutions fail?

1. We over-promise
2. We under-plan

I can easily say I’m going to lose 50 pounds this year. But that’s a huge and difficult goal. Without a solid diet, exercise, and lifestyle plan, it’s never going to happen.

A more realistic goal is better. Maybe 20 pounds instead. Or perhaps I won’t focus on the number of pounds but on a diet and lifestyle goal. If I’m not currently working out, then saying I will work out five times a week is unrealistic. After a month of not working out and not losing weight, I’ll likely forget about ever making that resolution.

Realistic Portfolio & Career Goals

You might not have many pieces for your portfolio. You’ve probably tried many things during your time in the School of Art. Now that it’s time to focus on one thing, you might not have a lot of work in that career area. If you choose an animation career, all the cool jewelry pieces you made in metals class won’t help your portfolio much. Or if you decide to be a jewelry artist, all the typography and packaging pieces you made in graphic design class won’t help your portfolio.

You will focus on making new work for your career portfolio every other week in this class. In the alternate weeks you create the other aspects of your portfolio: writing about yourself and your work, photographing yourself and your work, and so on.

Also, there are two “off-campus networking” events. Most students hate this activity. It’s intimidating. And you’re super busy with other classes and other commitments. It’s also critically important. You need a strong portfolio. But you also need a career network to show that portfolio to.

This will be a busy semester for you outside Art 490. And there’s so much to do in this class. This is where the “realistic New Year’s resolutions” come in. Don’t start the semester thinking you’ll make the greatest portfolio and career plans ever and then, week after week, disappoint yourself with anemic efforts.

Set realistic weekly goals for yourself. Don’t over-promise. Then, hold yourself to it.

Shrinking Career Goals

You might set a clear and ambitious career goal this semester. But then, in the final weeks of the semester, change your plans to,

I’m planning to keep my day job and do a little art part time. I’ll try to build an art career slowly over the years.

There’s nothing wrong with this goal. If it is your real goal.

But if you set an ambitious career goal, then get to the end of the semester and realize that you haven’t done enough to make this goal possible, do you panic and say, “Day job for now, art later?”

A dream without a plan is only ever a dream. A dream, or specific goals, with a plan, become steps you can take to build the career you want.

Most students graduating with a degree in art will not start their career as an animator at Pixar, with a solo show at Hauser & Wirth, or as an art director at Nike. These are over-ambitious goals that are ripe for giving up on. But there are realistic entry-level career goals that you can pursue.

Again, set realistic goals. Then, hold yourself accountable for doing the work every week and taking the many small steps to make that happen. It’s not about one heroic giant step. It’s about the commitment to completing many small steps.

Course Details

Long Beach State University, College of the Arts, School of Art
Art 490: Capstone Workshop: Artist’s Careers, Portfolios & Websites

• Instructor: Glenn Zucman
• email: glenn.zucman@csulb.edu
• Office Hours: anytime! Let’s talk by email or hop on Zoom if you have questions about the class, art, career, life, or anything else. We have 2 “official” 1-to-1 zoom meetups, but you don’t have to wait for those. If you have questions, let’s talk!
• Semester: Fall 2024
• Section 1: Class #5660 – Online Asynchronous + Zoom Mondays Noon – 12:45 pm
• Section 4: Class #11154 – Online Asynchronous + Zoom Wednesdays Noon – 12:45 pm
• Prerequisite: BA or BFA Senior in the School of Art, or College of the Arts, or MA or MFA Student
• Units: 1
• Work Estimate: 3 hours/week
• Textbook: Why You, Why Me, Why Now, by Rachel Toor, $16, Bookstore or Online.
• Web Hosting & Domain Name: $48-96
• Course: August 26 – December 11, 2024
• Final Section 1: Friday, 13 Dec 2024, 12:30-2:30 pm PT on Zoom.
• Final Section 4: Wednesday, 18 Dec 2024, 12:30 – 2:30 pm PT on Zoom.

Course Format

• Online
• Synchronous (45-minute weekly Zoom meetup) + Asynchronous (work on your own time)
• Plus 1-to-1 Zoom meetups with Glenn

Zoom Links

• Zoom Room: for weekly M or W meetups, go to Canvas > Art490 > Zoom & use the links there
• 1-to-1 Meetups with Glenn: csulb.zoom.us/my/glennz
• Password: soa

Schedule

• Week 1 – Choose a Web Platform & Custom Domain Name
• Week 2 – Career Goal & Elevator Pitch
• Week 3 – Make New Work
• Week 4 – Key People
• Week 5 – Make New Work
• Week 6 – Photograph Yourself & Your Work
• Week 7 – Make New Work
• Week 8 – Write About Yourself & Your Work
• Week 9 – Make New Work
• Week 10 – 1st Draft of Portfolio Website Due
• Week 11 – Make New Work
• Week 12 – Test Your Portfolio Website
• Week 13 – Make New Work
• Fall Break – Nov 25 – Dec 1
• Week 14 – Critique Classmate Portfolio Websites
• Week 15 – Final Draft of Portfolio Website Due
• Final – Critique of Websites with special guests (Zoom)

1-to-1 Meetups with Glenn

1. Meetup #1 – Weeks 2 & 3
2. Meetup #2 – Weeks 7 & 8

• Visit the Meetup Schedule Page to pick the Day & Time you’d like to meetup on Zoom.
• I’m available for all the meetups you’d like by email or Zoom. These are just our 2 “official” meetups.

Off-Campus Networking

Developing career plans and building a portfolio is your major focus this semester. It is also essential to start networking to get that portfolio in front of the eyes that can help advance your career. This means stepping off the LBSU campus and into the world where your career will develop and grow.

I am aware that most art students hate this activity. Yet, it is the single most important career-building thing you can do. I don’t see a way around it. Make some time, summon your courage, and go out and meet the people and explore the world where you hope to build a career for years to come.

Going to an art event or exhibit every week is highly recommended. The official requirement is to go twice: once by Week 7, and another by Week 14.

• Details: Off-Campus Networking
• Some Options: Conference & Events Calendar

Why You, Why Me, Why Now? by Rachel Toor

Lucky for us, Rachel Toor just published this book a few months ago. It’s the perfect career compliment for our class. It will help you with many topics, like:

• Attitude
• The Search
• Job Descriptions
• Cover Letters
• Resumes & CVs
• Interviews
• and more

We’ll read a chapter a week and discuss it in our Canvas class discussions.

Minimum Word Count for Discussions

Being a college student, it’s natural for you to ask, is there a minimum word count for discussions? And, is there a minimum number of comments I must reply to?

To answer this question, we have to zoom out and ask a few larger questions:

1. Why are you taking this class?
2. What is the purpose of reading and discussing?

Here are some thoughts about these questions:

1. Many of you may have enrolled in Art 490 because you needed one unit to graduate. So, technically, that’s your reason for being here. But now that you’re here, is that the only thing you want from this course? Or, are you interested in using your art abilities to build some art or arts-adjacent career?
2. The cynical but sometimes true answer is: I read and discuss to earn points so I can earn a grade so I can eventually graduate. Then, I’ll move on to jumping through still more hoops as I slowly climb an infinite ladder that always seems to approach, without ever reaching, some sort of career satisfaction or life fulfillment.
   I hope that we can move past the cynical. I hope you never read, discuss, or do anything else because Glenn says I have to jump through this hoop if I want to pass the class. To be blunt: who cares what Glenn thinks? Art 490 shouldn’t be about pleasing some old guy you’ll probably quickly lose touch with. It should be about taking real steps toward building an arts or other career that can be personally satisfying and also rent-paying.

To go back to the minimum number of words:

• If the only reason you’re in Art 490 is to grab a meaningless one-unit
• And the only reason you’re reading and discussing is because Glenn says it’s a hoop you must jump through to collect your unit
• Then you should write as few words as you possibly can.

On the other hand:

• If you believe that Art 490 can be a useful opportunity for you to develop career plans and materials (elevator pitch, portfolio, website, social media, professional network) that can make a real difference in your career outlook
• Then you shouldn’t even look at how many words you’ve written or how many classmate posts you’ve responded to; you should just dive into the discussion-ocean and suck everything you can out of this nutrient-rich world.

I do appreciate that as an overloaded college student and human being, your time is always fought for by many diverse needs and responsibilities. Still, I hope you can find time to build the career you want. Shout if I can ever help with anything. Or shout if you don’t even know what you need help with, but just feel overwhelmed: glenn.zucman@csulb.edu

About Art 490

• Online. Synchronous & Asynchronous.

Prerequisites

• BA or BFA Senior in the School of Art, or College of the Arts, or MA or MFA Student

Objectives

This class has three key objectives to help you transition from the School of Art to your Professional Art Career:

1. Pick one clear career goal. Pick three sub-categories within your goal.
2. Make new work to fill in your three portfolio categories.
3. Assemble your work into a compelling portfolio & website.

Learning Outcomes

On completing the class, you will be able to:

1. Give a Confident, Clear, Concise & Compelling (the “4 C’s”) two-sentence “Elevator Pitch” describing your Art Career
2. Make the portfolio pieces you need to advance your career without having an instructor assign them
3. Build a persuasive Portfolio Website
4. Use Portfolio software like Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, and others
5. Easily & Quickly Update the content of your Portfolio
6. Change the aesthetics of your Portfolio
7. Prepare Images & Videos for your Portfolio
8. Create an online CV or Resume
9. Create an online Artist’s Statement
10. Exchange links with other artists

The 4 C’s

The 4 C’s (Confident, Clear, Concise & Compelling) are essential to everything you do. From your elevator pitch to your full portfolio, everything should embrace The 4 C’s as you build urgency around yourself and your work. More info on the 4 C’s is here:

• The 4 C’s

Materials

Textbook

• Why You, Why Me, Why Now, by Rachel Toor, $16, Bookstore or Online.

Required Materials

Your Domain Name (URL) like: glenn.zucman.com, Not glennzucman.wix.com

You can buy your Domain Name and Hosting from a Web Hosting Company. Here are a few choices:

• Squarespace – 50% 1st Year Student Discount – $96/year
• Wix – 50% Student Discount – $96/year
• WordPress.com – $48/year
• More choices: Platforms

Other Tools

1. Computer – laptop or desktop. Or computers in the Horn Center or Spidel Center
2. Camera – Phone, Mirrorless, DSLR, or Film
3. Cloud Storage – Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, etc (free version)

Total Course Cost

• $16 + $48-96 = $64-112

Technology

Technical Competence Required

• use phone & laptop
• view websites & navigate to different locations
• download & install software

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Any smartphone and laptop made in the last few years. Or computers in the Spidell Center or the Horn Center.

Minimum Software Requirements

1. Any modern web browser
2. Support software like Adobe Creative Cloud

Safety

Close Focusing

• Close focus when reading books, phones, and tablets can cause myopia, a condition in which close vision is sharp but distance vision is not.
• Stop for 20 seconds of distance viewing every 20 minutes of close focusing.
• Here’s an article by Guillaume Delacroix in LeMonde about Screen Use and Myopia.

Sitting is The New Smoking

• A January 2023 study in The Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine recommends five minutes of walking for every 30 minutes of sitting as providing the healthiest outcome.
• Here’s an article by Pascale Santi in LeMonde about walking for health and longer life.
• Or get a treadmill desk.

Stress, Alcohol & Women

• Life is filled with stress. Conditions in America like the lack of universal health care add to stress. And trying to start an art career, or any career, adds even more stress.
• Here’s an article by Olga Khazan in The Atlantic about Women, Stress, Alcohol, and Drugs.

Points & Grades

New Work

“New Work” must fit one of your three career categories. For example: if your career goal is Animation and your three categories are Storyboards, Backgrounds & Character Design, then you may not submit jewelry you made in your metals class. “New Work” must be work for Your Portfolio to make it possible to start your career.

Points

• Projects Weeks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14 x 1 point = 7 points
• New Work Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 x 1 point = 6 points
• 1-to-1 Meetups (Zoom) with Glenn 2 x 0 points = 0 points
• Off-Campus Networking due by Wk 7 & 14, 2 x 1 point = 2 points
• 1st draft of Portfolio Website w Custom URL = 1 point
• Final draft of revised Portfolio Website = 1 point
• Final Critique on Zoom = 1 point
• Textbook chapter discussions on Canvas: 12 x 1 point = 12 points
• Total Course Points Possible: 30

Grades

• 27 points = 90% = A
• 24 points = 80% = B
• 21 points = 70% = C
• 18 points = 60% = C
• 17 points & below = 59% = C

The lowest grade I give in this class is “C.” This course exists to help you build the portfolio and career you want. Not for me to force you to do things you don’t want to do.

No Late Work

I wouldn’t want to work here the day that happened.

Digital Domain manager responding to an LBSU student who asked “What happens when you’re late?”

Be Professional – there is no late work.

• If you’re late for an interview, you won’t get hired.
• If you’re late delivering work, you won’t get rehired (and may get sued)
• Take this course and your career seriously.
• Meet your deadlines.

Each week, your work is due on Canvas:

• Due Date is Thursday @ 11:59 pm PT
• Deadline is Sunday @ 11:59 pm PT

If you plan to have your work completed and submitted by the weekly “Due Date” of Thursday, then you give yourself a cushion for anything that might come up: technical issues, personal things, and so on.

Work submitted by the Sunday Deadline receives full credit. Work submitted after the deadline receives no credit.

Turning Work In

Your activities each week will be “turned in” on Canvas.

In Week 1, you’ll start a portfolio website using Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, or any other platform you like:

• List of Platforms

On Canvas, each week, there will be a URL entry box for you to enter the address of the relevant page.

Week 1

• For Week 1, it will be the main address of your portfolio, like:
• https://glenn.zucman.com

Week 2 & Beyond

• After that, you’ll submit the URL for the page on your portfolio site that has that week’s content, like:
• https://glenn.zucman.com/corpus/collaboration/
• https://glenn.zucman.com/about/
• and so on

Every week, you turn in on Canvas. But it’s only a URL for where the content is on your website.

Many of the pages will be public-facing portfolio pages that are linked to your menu. For an animator, it might be:

• Character Designs
• Storyboards
• Backgrounds
• About Me
• and so on

Other pages, like research pages listing artists, galleries, and companies, can be non-portfolio pages that are not reachable from your menu but can be accessed directly by the page URL. Ask Glenn if this is confusing! 😀

Other Details

Incompletes

The School of Art grants “incompletes” rarely and only for the most extreme conditions.

Withdrawal Deadlines

• CSULB Enrollment Services: Key Dates & Deadlines
• CSULB Dropping & Withdrawing Policies

Accommodation

LBSU will make reasonable accommodations for any student who has different needs. Sometimes your needs might be apparent to me. Often, they might not be apparent. It’s up to you to LMK of any accommodations or other help you might need. Don’t be embarrassed to ask. The only purpose of this course is to build your art career. LMK how I can help!

Accessibility

This syllabus, and all other Art 490 materials, have been designed to be accessible to all students. The type should be legible, have good contrast, and be friendly for screen readers. The only things underlined are web links. Underline means link. If you find elements of this syllabus or the class that are difficult to use or could be better, please let me know so I can make our content accessible for all students. The LBSU Accessibility Statement is here.

Eliminating Anti-Blackness

Faculty at LBSU strive to create an environment that supports meaningful dialogue grounded in research, academic inquiry, and mutually respectful relations. We also strive to remain conscious of and attentive to the damage that anti-Blackness does to the lives of our students, faculty, staff, administrators, and their related communities.

Freedom of Expression 

The College of the Arts (COTA) at Long Beach State University (LBSU) embraces freedom of expression in the arts and encourages students’ creation of work that thoughtfully engages with all facets of the human experience. COTA recognizes that respect, openness, inclusiveness, and access are essential to creating a productive and constructive place for our students, faculty, and staff to teach, learn, study, create, and expand their fields. LBSU supports creative, thoughtful, and respectful discourses in which conflicting perspectives are vigorously debated and thoroughly discussed. LBSU is dedicated to affording all members of the LBSU community freedom of speech, expression, right to assemble, religion, and press, and protections for all identities under the U.S. and California constitutions, as well as under all applicable federal and state laws, in accordance with the University’s purpose and function except insofar as limitations on those freedoms are necessary to LBSU’s functioning. 

For more information about the First Amendment, freedom of expression, and hate speech, see:

• csulb.edu/student-affairs/free-speech/freedom-of-expression
• csulb.edu/student-affairs/free-speech/faq
• csulb.edu/academic-senate/policy-statement-00-07-faculty-professional-responsibility-policy  

For more on COTA’s support of diversity & inclusion see:

• csulb.edu/college-of-the-arts/mission-and-vision

AI & Your Portfolio

one of the first applications of any new technology is making things even shittier for artists.

Neal Stephenson

You may use AI writing tools to help with your Art 490 writing.

Please consider:

• Machine learning language models like ChatGPT can be problematic. They use stolen ideas for their predictions. They replicate the racism and sexism of this source material. Machine learning models can warp our worldviews and harm society.
• You are responsible for the generated text you use in your portfolio. Check that it does not violate intellectual property laws or contain misinformation or unethical content.
• If English is not your first language, it is possible that Generative AI can help you write sentences with better English grammar. So can going over your Artist’s Statement and other text with Glenn or an advisor at the LBSU Writing Center.
• While the use of Generative AI is permitted in Art 490 as taught by Glenn, it might not be permitted in other courses you take at LBSU. Be sure you know the AI policies for each course you take before using AI tools. Permission for this course does not imply permission for any other course.

Some Portfolio Writing areas where Generative AI might be helpful include:

• Brainstorming and refining your ideas
• Fine-tuning your Artist’s Statement and other text
• Finding information on the skills and terminology typical in your career area
• Drafting an outline
• Checking grammar and style

In my brief experience with ChatGPT I’ve found that it writes competent but perhaps verbose text. The best tool I’ve found for writing Confident, Clear, Concise & Compelling (the “4 C’s”) statements is “Hemingway App”.

Campus Confidential Advocates, Not Alone @ the Beach

Title IX prohibits gender discrimination, including sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. If you have experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, dating/domestic violence, or stalking, the Campus Confidential Advocate is available to help.

Jaqueline Urtez and Rocio Telumbre, email: advocate@csulb.edu, phone: 562-985-2668, can provide free and confidential support, accommodations, and referrals for victims without having to report the assault to campus authorities. While students are welcome to discuss assaults with faculty or disclose such experiences in class discussions or assignments, both faculty and teaching assistants are responsible employees who are required to report all known incidents of sexual harassment/misconduct to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office for follow-up. Reporting this information will result in the student being contacted by the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office with information on accommodations and reporting options for possible investigation. Students do not need to respond to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office, but students who do wish to report the assault for possible investigation are encouraged to contact the Campus Confidential Advocate, who can help them through the reporting process, or they can report the assault directly to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office by completing an online reporting form at csulb.edu/equity-compliance or contacting the Office of Equity & Diversity at OED@csulb.edu.

For more information about confidential advocacy services and violence prevention education at LBSU, please contact our campus project Not Alone @ the Beach at cla.csulb.edu/natb