When I was in preschool, my mom took a writing class at the local community college. Then she took it again. And again. The whole time I was growing up, she was taking some iteration of the class. Her writing crew was an eclectic bunch, very different from the goody two-shoes that she hung out with during her regular social life. She was proud of the fact that they were banned from the local Dennys for being too rowdy. The instructor—an extremely prolific freelance writer with a butterfly tattooed on her face—was less about driving people to generate publishable material (although that certainly happened) and more about throwing out writing prompts like: “Kill someone, and dispose of the body” just to see what happened.

Witnessing this was a valuable education in art as a counterpoint to the grind of day-to-day life, both the paid kind (my mom’s jobs usually had “analyst” somewhere in the title and involved a lot of spreadsheets and office politics) and the unpaid kind (everything to do with family). Writers’ group was a bulwark against the scope creep of day-to-day existence. 

Making a living off of art is demonstrably hard. Making art once you’ve figured out how to make a living doing something else is, if not always easy, a hell of a lot more sustainable. Community colleges like PCC and Mt. Hood are good places to start since they’re often the most affordable option, especially for studio classes like pottery, but Portland is full of arts organizations that may be more convenient to where you live and when you’re available. 

If you’re making art to help build a career, you’ve got to think about what you’re good at, what’s going to impress people, and how to fit all the weird things you do into a coherent story and trajectory. Remove “career” from the equation and the question of what kind of art to make becomes simpler—less “am I transcendent and in service to the muse?” and more “what do I actually feel like doing at 6 pm on a Tuesday?” 

So what do you actually feel like doing? Not sure? Here are a few suggestions. 

WRITING

Pros: No fancy equipment required. Writing is an inherently revealing act, and you will learn truly wild things about how people see the world that you would probably never learn about otherwise. 

Cons : The window into how other people perceive the world, that writing classes can provide, has a bad side as well as a good one. There’s a particular kind of person who shows up at writing groups or classes looking for a captive audience—like the edgelord who responds to every assignment with porny descriptions of murder. Sourcing an instructor is key, since a good one will serve as both aesthetic and emotional bouncer. 

Goes well with: Any job that doesn’t already involve writing or spending time with people’s feelings. One exception: If you do write for a living, you may get something out of studying a form that is different from what you do. 

A few places to take classes IPRC, 318 SE Main, iprc.org; Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington, literary-arts.org; Corporeal Writing, 510 SW 3rd, corporealwriting.com

POTTERY

Pros: Pottery is the touch grass of the creative arts. It’s so satisfying and tactile that—as the kinds of jobs that a person can make a living with have grown more disembodied—pottery studios have proliferated in the way of third-wave coffee shops, forming a kind of clay-industrial complex. Wedging clay to get out air bubbles is like the earthy equivalent of a rage room. 

Cons: You will quickly overwhelm yourself and your friends with all of your little mugs and pots and dishes. Eventually, you will have to start smashing. 

Goes well with: Any job that makes you forget that you have a body.

A few places to take classes: The Mud Room, 2011 SE 10th & 1831 N Killingsworth, themudroompdx.com; Radius Clay Studio, 2324 SE Belmont, radiusstudio.org; St. John’s Clay, 6635 North Baltimore, stjohnsclay.com

METALWORKING

Pros: There are very few things more satisfying than banging stuff on an anvil. 

Cons: Not many places where you can actually take classes. Will anyone actually wear the jewelry you make them? 

Goes well with: Any job that makes you long for physical activity, but leaves you with enough cognitive wherewithal to follow proper safety procedures.

A few places to take classes: Multnomah Arts Center, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy, multnomahartscenter.org; Wildcat Welding & Hobby Shop, 3615 NE 50th, wildcathobbyclasses.com

COMEDY / PERFORMANCE

Pros: You get to move your body in space. Lots of standing & yelling. Can inadvertently make you better at other aspects of your life by making you more comfortable speaking in front of (and with) other people. 

Cons: Most forms of live performance turn out to be more fun to do than to watch. Your friends will live in fear that you will ask them to come and see your shows. You get so deep into theater and rehearsing that your performance friends replace your old friends. You get so good at saying “yes, and…” that your very boundaries of self dissolve into the theatrical whole. 

Goes well with: Any job where nobody ever says “yes, and… .”

A few places to take classes: Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi, sirentheater.com, Kickstand Comedy, 1006 SE Hawthorne, kickstandcomedy.org, Curious Comedy, 5225 NE MLK, curiouscomedy.org; Portland Center Stage, 128 NW 11th, pcs.org

PHOTOGRAPHY

Pros: Ideal art form if you enjoy alternating between being really engaged with people and totally disassociating to becoming one with a camera. 

Cons: Can lead to a lot of computer post-production work. The equipment can get really expensive. Many of the other photographers that you meet will be guys who want to compare lenses. Friends will ask you to take their wedding photos. 

Goes well with: Any job that makes enough money to buy all of those fancy lenses.

A few places to take classes: Pro Photo Supply, 1112 NW 19th, prophotosupply.com

DRAWING / PAINTING

Pros: Can be extremely tactile and satisfying. Classes with live models make you feel like you’re in an old-timey movie about art. 

Cons: The learning curve can be pretty steep, and it can take a long time to make anything that you actually feel comfortable showing to anyone. The aesthetic tropes of life drawing class mean you can wind up with a lot of media depicting rumpled sheets, fruit, spheres, and the pubic regions of strangers.

A few places to take classes: High/Low Art Space, 936 SE 34th, highlowartspace.com; Outlet, 500 NE Sandy, outletpdx.com

SCREEN PRINTING

Pros: Perfect for people who look upon the process of art making and wish that it had more repetitive physical motion and opportunities to obsess over mesh count, ink extenders, and squeegee durometer. 

Cons: Screeen printing is among the most conflict-prone of the arts in shared studio spaces. Whose turn is it to use the sink? Who didn’t clean all the ink off the last time they used it? Who touched the very expensive paper with their smudgey fingers? The practice attracts those with dreams of merch and craft fair glory. If you get good at it, your reward will be friends trying to get you to screen print tote bags for their wedding. 

Goes well with: Any job that has enough chaos to make you long for order and obsessive repetition.

A few places to take classes: IPRC, 318 SE Main, iprc.org; Multnomah Arts Center, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy, multnomahartscenter.org

CHOIR

Pros: Like pottery, singing with other people can be satisfying on an almost cellular level. There’s a reason all the cultiest religions have a lot of singing. 

Cons: With the exception of drop-in groups like Low Bar Chorale, committing to a musical group means showing up for practice, every single time, no matter how inconvenient. You skip at your peril, and you’d better not be off-key.

Goes well with: Any job where you need to be reminded that it’s actually possible to enjoy working with other people. 

A few places to take classes: Low Bar Chorale, various locations, lowbarchorale.com; Portland Revels, 128 NW 11th, portlandrevels.org; Portland Folk Music Society, various locations, portlandfolkmusic.org