kind of a cover letter

I left my hometown, Seattle to go to college, not necessarily to specialize in anything but to simply become a better human being, thinker, problem solver and communicator. My degrees are in animation, an artform that requires deep knowledge and wide ranging skills from handicrafts such as sewing, painting and paper crafts, to digital technologies including video editing, story craft, audio design and editing, design, and physical installations. And I have a Masters of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means, I will say that I lean heavily towards the experimental side of things.

Prior to going to college I devoted myself to photography; prior to that I was a dancer and choreographer; and have many years of experience producing very large scale dance and music productions; in the late nineties and early aughts I spent a few years working in front end development, (mostly poking at things until they worked and looked good); and prior to all of that I was in the Navy as a builder, I did gigs in residential remodeling to keep the bills paid while I committed myself to a life of creativity and experimentation. That's a pretty mixed bag of experience and skills! Admittedly my specializations come and go, but I never lose touch with any of the skills I've picked up and nurtured along the way.

So here's the thing, I'm curious, yes, and I'm not the entrepreneur type, nope, not anymore. I used to be when I was young and had nothing to lose and a higher tolerance for worry. Not so much anymore, I can channel my personal passions into volunteer work and hobbies like a normal grown up, I'm way past running away to join the circus, (I've already done that, it was great fun). I'm willing to work, put in long hours to bring ideas to life so long as they're ideas I can believe in and champion.

I think I'm a decent project manager, except that I have very little experience in generating or managing budgets, but I can get 1500 dancers in the same place, on time to look amazing with very few hitches; from casting calls to production night I'm a nurturing manager, very organized on the back end, a gentle prodder, and absolutely awesome at time management, I don't need to be the star of the show, but I do like a pat on the back and to have a good name with the higher ups for being good at achieving our goals.

But you know what, most of my really good experience comes from volunteering. I am a "burner" and have worked my way through the ranks of volunteerism at the organization that produces a large cultural arts community event for 15 years. At the 11 year mark I was invited to participate in newly created roles for "council" members, people who acted as experts, mentors and project managers for specific parts of the event production. I wrote my own job description as a Production Designer and served on the Fire Conclave Council from it's inception in 2010 through 2014 when I decided I needed to step away to focus on finishing my MFA with undivided attention. In the role of council member I shadowed the Managing Art Director of the event documenting every procedure related to producing the Fire Conclave, after the first year my partner and I effectively took on the full production of the Fire Conclave in every aspect of it's direction with the exception of full control of our budget, as the Council was a seasonal satellite to the full time corporate production house. I would love to have become a permanent full time employee. No resume is permitted to be as long and winding as mine would need to be to describe the experience of working as staff at this cultural arts event, even a cover letter is too limited in scope to keep a reader engaged long enough to get to the meat of it. It's easy to say I worked my up from being a meandering fire dancer to the person who ran the fire show and lined up every duck along the way, and it's not quite enough to say that I had to be extremely nimble in a rapidly changing creative environment, and I really wish the breadth of my experience working in this particular role for a few short years actually prepared me with all of the necessary skills and experience to directly port into corporate life. I was a director in the desert, but in the real world I'm seemingly unqualified for anything, despite that being the exact opposite of the truth, I'm deeply and exquisitely qualified, and missing the financial expertise.  The funny thing to me is that I went to school so that I would be qualified to be hired full time to do the job I was doing, and by deciding to go to school I somehow managed to lose my job.

And now I need a new job. I have kind of a specific skill set even if it looks like my experience is all over the board, the reality of it is that I spent 18 years working towards being a creative director, and did do just that for five years. I'd very much like to keep doing it. I love working with artists, I get them, I am one of them.

I have a few weeks remaining in school, I'm putting the finishing touches on my thesis film, and I am very motivated to return to the West, I would prefer to go to a job than to whisk off freely in search of one, as I am in fact an adult with a family and responsibilities, I can't jump in my van and go like I used to, (oh free wheelin' youth).

I've been so committed to doing well in school I haven't looked up from my books long enough to keep abreast of the kinds of places I could go, the kinds of places that utilize skill sets like mine.

Suggestions?