Imagine my delight seeing the oldest ceramics artist alive STILL WORKING at the age of 99!!!!!! Happy Birthday, Rose Cabat! (June 27th is her birthday) Her beautiful pieces called “feelies” are below…
Before I struck out as a ceramics artist, I always held jobs in state/county systems (mainly working in universities). There you would meet tons of people with the “golden handcuffs”. At least back in the 90s and early aughts, university staff positions were impossible to get fired from, paid semi-decently (sorry not UC Berkeley) but had amazing benefits in health and retirement. People woud get stuck in these jobs because of the promise of wonderful health and early, well paid retirements (if you could stand working there for 20-30 years). I clearly could not.
When I first left these seemingly cushy, safe jobs, that was my biggest concern. Of course, first and foremost, I have no health insurance which completely freaks me out. The second is my tiny retirement fund hasn’t grown since leaving UC Berkeley. I can’t fund it anymore and after the recession crash the little bit I had halved and is now only back to where it was pre-crash.
So what retirement plan anyway? I really don’t want or expect to retire from working in clay. That’s the benefit of doing something you love to do. Thanks for being my inspiration! And oh by the way, are these not the most beautiful pieces you’ve ever seen?? Now if only I had enough money to fund buying one of them.
