“sure, why not?” [the story]
the way we went about finding work was said to be simple: go to school or do training for something of interest, get a job in exactly what we are trained in, and after a very brief interview process we were on our way to a good life, probably with a nice pension to retire with. we’d climb this corporate ladder in a nice, orderly fashion.
this is just what i was told.
this no longer works for most, yet for some reason the way most are hiring hasn’t changed and it’s creating friction. people are applying for new jobs in an old system. we’re all tired of being rejected by non-humans with no feedback.
is this all worth it? do i even want this job?
sure, it might feel secure… until they do yet another round of budget cuts, of course, and when that happens any one of us might be the target.
what if?…
we went outside the box with what work could start to look like? what if we cared more about actually liking our work? we are going to be working until we die at this rate so we might as well enjoy it.
i want this so called corporate ladder to cease to exist.
i want less judgment on gaps, contract work, and unrelated side jobs on resumes.
maybe there’s a better way to do all this than we ever imagined if we think outside the cubical.
the process:
the background is a collage of a bunch of handwritten rejection emails i’ve gotten in the past year or two; this layer is hardly shown in the final piece because they are not important
rejection is redirection
i cut out small phrases, words, or images from vintage books and magazines that fit the concept and placed them around the canvas
the white/yellow paint blending the collaged words together acts as a symbol of optimism
the connected dots and stencilled words tell the story of the people we meet and opportunities we come across, always leading you from one to the next without really knowing until you’re in it
the final step was a golf ball dipped in black paint and then rolled freely around the canvas… because that’s how curious we should be when looking for work we love to do
final look:
i showed this at a local art event at saskatoon makerspace at the end of 2025.
makerspace typically dims the lights for events with hanging patio lights so in addition to that, i hung flashlights on either side of the canvas for people to hold up to the canvas and move it around to see all the details as an immersive treasure hunt experience.
