Painting a Picture

So this morning I traveled again to Grand Central Station. This time to catch the 7:43 train to Cornwall, NY. It was about an hour and a half train ride and then Scenic Art Studios sent someone out to pick me up and from there it was about 15 minutes to the Studio.

I met with Joe Forbes and Laurie Cohen, both scenic artists at SAS. This was by far my most favorite interview. We just sat around this table and talked but it was so comfortable and they were the nicest people ever. Joe runs a class, its a 3 year program and everyone who has stayed the 3 years has been able to pass the Union exam and begin work as a Union artist. The classes run every Saturday for 5 hours and while you are in school you are also working during the week in non-union venues. This sounds so awesome, they teach you everything you need to know and he said he can teach anyone basically, haha.

A non-union painter at the lowest pay will earn around $15/hour and a union painter will earn, when starting out, $47/hour. So that is quite a difference right there. He suggested living in NY in close proximity to the 5 boroughs. That is where the most work is and you have to have the ability to take mass transit.

He said that you have to apply for the program but in 5 years they haven’t turned anyone down. He told me this story about when he was first starting out and interviewed at a different studio and then years later ended up working for the same guy and looked up his file and it said “knows nothing, needs everything,” haha so I think he understands all different levels of beginners. And now he owns his own very successful studio.

Everyone I have met have stressed how much fun it is to work on movies, and you can get into that from the Union too. Being in the Union is your contact to the best artists and designers in the world. They say you are treated as an artist and a professional as opposed to non-union where sometimes you won’t even be paid and have to break your neck to make $30,000/year. There is an availibility list when you are in the Union and out of work that the big studios look at for hire, and he said that sometimes the list is at 100% employment! That means every Union artist is currently employed…insane.

The downside to all of this is that it is around $18,000/semester. So $36,000/year and $108,000/all 3 years, not including rent and etc. But they said that they are making sure you have non-union work so you can pay but that just seems to out of my reach its scary.  Okay I lied.  I just looked up the information on their website and its only $1800/semester! So $3600/year and $10,800/for three years.  Wow, that is much much more doable, that isn’t even Mary Wash for one year… 

This trip has given me a lot to think about.