Like many art majors, learning to balance work, non-art course work and life outside of the Fain Fine Arts building can be challenging.  Studio courses meet in three-hour blocks twice a week, which can cause time constraint issues, not to mention the amount of studio time that is required to complete projects.  Art students are in the studios working away on assignments way too late at night.

I’ve had a photography business that got started while still in high school.  The photography business just gave me some extra spending money but was not enough to sustain.

I worked at Books-A-Million on weekends during my junior year at MSU. I took 15 hours per semester, three of which were studio classes (which take up a hell of a lot more time than a normal class). I felt as if I lived in the art building. The pressure to get all of my course work done during the week and working all weekend left no time to have a social life — or sleep. So I decided to quit my job to take a summer painting course in Dallas — that was when I decided that I needed to find another means of supporting myself.

The Pokemon Go craze that took over last summer was my  first go at making t-shirts for a profit.  So I  started making shirts for Team Mystic and strangers contacted me on Facebook to make one for them too. I charged $6 and told others to bring their own shirt and what times I would be printing. This was a perfect solution to my financial problems.

I am majoring in printmaking and minoring in graphic design, so what better job could I have? Since I am religious, and after praying about it, everything just seemed to fall into place. I was offered space at Frank & Joe’s, a local coffee shop, to sell my T-shirts. So I would come up with a few different designs, purchase some T-shirts and print them myself.

My business took off and Black Cat Printmaking and Graphic Design was born. People began to contact me to do custom shirts and logos for their businesses. I had found my niche. This is what I love to do. I hope to continue expanding my business and plan to eventually own my own store/studio, my dream location being in Galveston. I would like to help other artists out with their dreams too.

Not enough people go for what they dream anymore.

Lauren Hamlin is a printmaking senior.