Ten years ago I left my job as an occupational therapist to be a full time artist and fiber art teacher. In that moment I didn’t know I wouldn’t return to healthcare. All I knew was that the job I thought was my perfect forever-job (pediatric outpatient OT), was ruled by a boss and a system I couldn’t stomach any more. I had only been at that job a year though it was my 17th year working as an OT.
Me in my Santa Fe studio working on a new course, 2014
When I moved to Santa Fe the year before to start that job, I also shelled out the money to share a studio with my colleague and friend Cornelia Theimer Gardella. It was her idea and I’m still surprised that I not only said yes but pushed for a much bigger space than she had been considering. I had no real reason to have an 850 square foot shared studio at that point. Something in me took a leap and it definitely wasn’t conscious or even rational at the time. I just knew that I needed that studio and Cornelia gave me the ability to make it happen if I really stretched financially.
My first online course
A year on, my perfect therapy job ended when I walked away and I took another leap. I started making what would be my first online course, Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry. In March of 2014 I knew nothing about making videos, shooting videos, lighting, or even how to teach online. But I knew how to teach and I knew where to find the resources I needed. I also had some innate sense that I had the ability to make an online class that would be useful to people. I dove into making videos about how to weave tapestry.
I was looking for another OT job while working on that course. I had several interviews all of whom offered me good positions doing pediatric therapy, but in the weeks between leaving my job and having to make a decision about which new position to take, I’d created a big chunk of Warp and Weft. And I loved it. I loved the process of putting a curriculum together and once I figured out the technology, I even loved editing the videos. It was my creation and I could be silly or serious, structure the curriculum any way I wanted, and there was no one telling me that I couldn’t do it. And perhaps most importantly, I refused to tell myself that I couldn’t do it. I chose to believe in myself.
Me working as a pediatric occupational therapist.
Of course I never took any of those occupational therapy jobs I applied for and this year I’m letting my therapy license expire.* Warp and Weft rolled out in the summer of 2014 and enough adventurous souls signed up for that first class that I could pay the bills.
The rest is history I suppose. I continued making courses about tapestry weaving, focusing on the subjects and learners that I felt needed a particular class. I now teach beginning and intermediate tapestry weavers in technique and design skills. I’ve collaborated with other tapestry weavers** and with a yarn company*** and I’ve had opportunities to teach all over the USA and even in Canada in person. I also dye all my own yarn and teach acid wool dyeing online.
Where will the next leap for me be? Stay tuned because I have ideas.
Taking risks
Taking a risk is a difficult thing to do. I don’t have children and when I made the decisions I did in Santa Fe, I also didn’t own a home or have any debt. I knew that I could have another OT job in a matter of days if I wanted it, OT being a very in-demand profession. So the leap for me was largely psychological. I really believed that being a healthcare professional was a respectable thing to do and I was good at it. I spent a long time in school getting a Masters of Science, doing research and writing my thesis, doing fieldwork, and then in employment, getting comfortable with all the challenges of being a therapist.
The leap was about letting that identity I had created over two decades go. And I did it because my soul was saying that there was something more important that I needed to do. That something had to do with this esoteric art form of tapestry that I learned from a few weaving masters in New Mexico and that I had come to love so deeply.
Is leaving a stable career in an occupation that will always be in demand for something based in art a smart move? Who knows. I’m just glad I took the leap.
Happy Leap Day everyone! What leaps, large or small, have you taken in your life? What is the next leap you are considering?
*Talk about a leap! It will be impossible for me to get it back without going back to school so it is a final decision that I am not going to work in healthcare again.
**Sarah Swett and I created the Fringeless Four-Selvedge Warping course which was more fun than I thought it could possibly be to create and teach.
***Gist Yarn and I sell a kit/course product as well as the Tapestry Discovery Box, a yarn/course subscription product with a new box of yarn and a new course every quarter.