Odd Jobs: Making a Living and Making a Life as an Artist in New York City is an oral history project on the survival labor of artists in New York City in the contemporary moment and the lives that these “odd jobs” allow artists to create. Through the stories of six working artists, including the author, this thesis explores the world-making possibilities that exist under the conditions of precarious labor and a faltering institutional artistic landscape.
Sophia Blake is a writer, actor, and musician based in New York City. She is originally from Salem, MA and spent four years in Illinois earning her BA in Theatre and History from Northwestern University, before moving to New York to pursue theatre and music. Her thesis work at OHMA centered on the day jobs of artists in New York and the lives that they are able to build around them. Storytelling is at the root of all that she does and she is passionate about finding new ways to understand and communicate facets of the human experience.