Artists proves passion trumps financial gain
The biggest challenge college students can face is choosing a major, and Arden Nixon, CSC class of 2005, was no different.
“As a freshman, I actually started out as a sociology major thanks to my love of Ancient Egyptian history and my then-plan to transfer to another college,” Nixon said.
“Come the end of the school year, I was literally crying in my adviser’s office because I was so miserable from lack of time for my art.” Nixon continued.
“Dr. Griffith, my advisor, handed me a box of Kleenex and suggested that in the coming year, we make my major better reflect who I was and what I needed, to be me. Art.”
Aware of the common idea that making a living as an artist is a challenge and with her mother, Cid Donnelly’s support, Nixon allowed her love of art to create her path. Donnelly said,
“She [Arden] could draw before she could walk. I knew that’s where her heart was. She was always encouraged to express herself openly and to believe in herself.”
Nixon changed her major and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in English, choosing art as her career path,
“As I loved writing equally as much and still do. It just so happens that paintings are easier to show than novels, so art won the public part of me,” she said.
Nixon remained in Chadron a few years after graduation before moving to upstate New York in 2008, where she and her husband-to-be Nicholas Walter lived until 2009.
It was after Nixon met Walter, who “encouraged [her] at times and pushed [wwher] at others,” that her career as an artist with a style bordering on fantastical realism became a reality. Art steadily gained momentum and began showing her pieces in coffee shops and libraries, designed and coded a website and utilized Facebook to promote her works. She became a member of deviantART, where she received valuable advice from more established artists. Nixon has given permission to Heaven and Earth Designs, a cross-stitch company, to use her artwork as designs, for which Nixon receives compensation. She also utilizes Cafepress and Etsy to sell her artwork.
In 2010, after Nixon and her husband moved to Lincoln, she attended ConStellation, a regional science fiction convection held in Lincoln.
“That convention brought invitations to others, and a few years down the road, my work appears at close to twenty, with more still awaiting confirmation for this year. I make personal appearances at a handful, and this year I am the Artist Guest of Honor at two,” Nixon said.
Last year Nixon kept busy attending conventions and completing commissioned paintings, leaving her with very few paintings for upcoming shows.
The road to Nixon’s success hasn’t been easy and she has sometimes been uncertain about her career option.
“Good and bad days. Sometimes, I think I’ve made the right decision, and other times I wistfully think how nice it would be to have a steady paycheck and just paint when I got home from work,” she said.
“If I had to choose a different path, owing to financial hardship or what have you, I know I could. However, so long as the choice is mine to make, so long as I do no worse than breaking even, this is what I must and need to do,” Nixon said.
“There are too many people whom I am honestly terrified of letting down or disappointing: too many who helped, too many who believed, too many who took the time to tell a stranger what a certain painting mean to them on the most personal of levels. While I may sometimes joke about a 9-to-5 job being easier, the truth of it is that I would spend all of that time thinking about what I’d paint when I went home,” she said.
For the time being, Nixon is successfully carving out a career as an artist and has incorporated her love of writing into her life; writing 5 complete novels.
“My goals for this year include finally self-publishing several of my novels and illustrating the same, as well as finding publishing houses for my existing body of artwork,” Nixon said.