Ask Me What I Do for A Living

In the earliest months of JUTE Theatre Company, before there were grants or programs or any certainty at all, back in 1992, the three of us had a running joke.

We had many running jokes, but this one was a classic.

Suellen walked through the front door of our rambling old Queenslander on Severin Street one afternoon, all grins, lit from within, and said, “Ask me what I do for a living.”

What do you do for a living, Suellen?

“I am an artist,” she announced.

It was reckless and thrilling and slightly absurd. It was her announcement that she had stepped away from the safety of her full-time job to commit fully to something risky, dubiously profitable, and completely random. We were gonna start a professional theatre company. After that, the phrase became ours. Soon after, all three of us would be able to say, ‘I am an artist’. And each time there was laughter and applause and a kind of fiercely defiant celebration involving Vic Bitter grenade beers, as if saying it aloud made it more true and made us more determined to build a life that could hold it.

So now. 2026. Ask me what I do for a living.
What do you do for a living, Kathryn?
I’m an artist.

Here’s what I am realising. Leaving the comfort of a full-time job is very unsettling. But I’ve realised the job that I thought was so aligned with my truth and life purpose was getting in the way of me living my best life.
My best life is all about not having a safety net. My best life is about risk. Uncertainty. Self-determination.

It is also about not needing to get up in the morning to organise for another artist to do their practice, but rather getting up in the morning and having to organise my own practice.

The irony is thick.

But herein lies my lesson for anyone who sees they may be in the same situation.

Let go of that ‘dream job’ in order to have your hands free to go get your dream.
Ask yourself—what I do for a living?