DISCLAIMER: These are the random, sporadic thoughts of my mind that is 1) cluttered with crowded thoughts or 2) on auto-pilot aimlessly wandering on the open road. I do not claim to be a writer, blogger, or even an amateur. What I am is a 40 hour working artist with a few things to say. Read, comment, share, and/or subscribe if possible. Thank you!
So I’ve been trying and re-trying to work on monthly budgeting and I found a template in Microsoft Excel that I thought flowed well. The first thing I noticed in the sample is the monthly income and I’m like “Ummm what? I wish I was bringing in that much a month.” Then the adult artist in me kicked in imagining the day one piece of art would bring in that whole month’s projected income. The endless possibilities with art is amazing. I am most definitely on the lower end of being an artist, but I work steadily on becoming a great artist. I used to say that I hated the word starving artist, but I put the term in the wrong context for years. I associated “starving artist” with someone who creates art but doesn’t get paid or barely paid for it and lives marginally for an extensive amount of time. After reading that, who the hell would want to be an artist? The recent definition I saw was that a starving artist would rather sacrifice material well-being and focus on their art. Now this is a more real world definition that applies to me.
I’m not much of a shopper and when I do shop its generally for art supplies, casual attire, and Chuck Taylor’s so I’m good on the materialism part. It’s funny how so many people think that artists are these non-conforming, freeloading rebels who make money from doing something they love so why should they get rich from it. Although some artists do become rich from it, this tends to happen after the artist DIES, smh. Yeah, I don’t think we’re in it for the money. Time after time, I hear and read articles from artists saying the lifestyle is not easy but rewarding and they wouldn’t change creating art over working a 9-5. Well since I’m caught up in the web of the 2, I can say that my soul would probably whither away and die if I didn’t have art in my life. Oh God, I can’t imagine if I just went to work Monday through Friday and repeated those steps 90% of the time until I died.
If you’re an artist and have fallen victim to the starving artist ideology that you’re wasting your time because artists generally don’t make a lot of money, STOP that way of thinking! I don’t stare at a computer during the day at my job to later on stare at computers again or a blank canvas or through a lens because I believe I’m wasting my time. I create art in some form or fashion daily even with -40 hours to work with because I believe in my art and you should too. Cultivate you craft!
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