Artist's Assistant

When playing the role of an artist’s assistant, you don’t always get glorious jobs such as laying a base color for a figure, or adjusting the artist’s highlights with a brush. Sometimes, you are handed the seemingly worthless, uninteresting jobs: washing the brushes, or primering the surface for paint.

That’s mostly what assistants get: dirty, unimpressive jobs. It can get annoying after awhile, especially if members of the press come to see the progress; ignoring you and talking directly to the artist; the artist you’ve been helping the entire time. It’s true, that no matter who comes in to the studio, they never talk to the assistant (who is usually in the area hurriedly working preparing for the call of the artist), they instead talk only to the artist, as if he alone did all the work. It’s the same on opening day; no one ever talks to the assistant.

However, despite all the neglect from everyone else; despite all the paint you’ve scraped off the pallets for hours at a time, it’s always a pleasure to hear your superior praise you for your hard work.

Plus, you both know you helped with that piece.