The stereotype of the starving artist is not necessarily fact. Art department alumni Kyle Young and Melanie Modica have used their art training to forge not one career, but eight between them.
The Lamar University department of Art and Design hosted the couple’s lecture “2 Careers, 8 Artists,” Oct. 15 in the Dishman Art Museum.
Young graduated with a BFA in Studio Art and Modica graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design in 1990. The couple got married in 1995, and collectively have experienced eight careers throughout their time together, they said.
Before he retired, Young’s four careers included art installation with side work in the medical field, studio art, being a preparator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and being an entrepreneur and business owner for TYart LLC.
Modica’s four careers include being an art educator, a general manager for TYart LLC, and a collection management advisor. Modica now works in art valuation and expert witness services.
Young and Modica gave details of their careers, educating art students on the opportunities they may have post-graduation. The couple also gave examples of work they did during their careers, such as when TYart was tasked with moving a Confederate sculpture from Hermann Park.
“We had to remove it in the dark,” Young said. “The hope was that it wouldn’t get a lot of people coming down there protesting. The idea was to make sure that we definitely take down the soldier and the plinth that it’s on, and we had one guy drive by and say something — other than that, there wasn’t much of anything.”
Young remembered an encounter he had while setting up the “Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective” exhibition at MFAH.
“I was out on the dock and I had just finished smoking a cigarette,” Young said. “A limo pulls up, and (Rauschenberg) gets out in a tan suit with an orange scarf, and he says, ‘You got a cigarette?’ I said, ‘I sure do.’ I handed him a cigarette, and I didn’t want another cigarette, but I lit another cigarette. I stood right there and talked to Robert Rauschenberg.”
Modica also told stories from her careers, from working with Greg Busceme, founder of The Art Studio, Inc. while she was teaching, to calling in auction offers on behalf of the billionaire whose collection she managed.
“I spent millions of their dollars on the phone,” Modica said. “It was very cool that I was told, ‘Buy this, buy that.’ It’s not, ‘Do we want to go higher?’ No, it’s, ‘Buy it.’”
Modica and Young ended the lecture by going through other career options that exist outside of the eight they experienced, followed by an open question-and-answer session for attendees.
Stephanie Chadwick, department chair for art and design, said the department has lectures like this one every semester, and is focusing now on career readiness.