People that art in the arts have no idea the how much work goes into being as unsuccessful of an artist as I am. The general public thinks that an artist's life is like,"Hey, I make painty today!" and then we go take a nap and watch barney while smoking a bunch of psychedelic drugs. When in actuality it is a life of torment,frustration, stress, depression, failure, and if your lucky slight renown. And those are the good parts. Most artist don't even get the luxury to be an artist as a full time career and have to settle for something near to their love like teaching, or working at an art store, or something ridiculous like that. To me, that is the equivalent of someone who goes through med school and becomes a doctor only to work as the elementary school nurse. When put like that it is ludicrous.
I studied to be an artist all my life and am damn good at it if I do say so myself. So no, I don't want to be a teacher.No, I don't want to sell people art supplies. No, I don't want to give tours at a museum. I want to sell my art.That is my career.It is not a hobby, or something I do on the weekends. I live, breathe, and sleep art. "Starving artist"as the old cliche goes does not amuse me. I like food...ALOT! I like to BBQ. And no!I do not take it as a compliment when people suggest that my work will be worth something only after I die. Actually, that is a very offensive remark and I take it quite personally.It is rare that people think it is a compliment to discourage one's dreams, passions, and profession because our society deems art an irrelevant practice in the eyes of society.In other cultures art is a revered talent and praise and admiration is given to those who pursue it. While here in America it is looked at as some sort of disease. Such as," Oh, your an artist.When you going to get a real job."
As an artist I do more than most I think considering I am working with close to nothing. My invest money goes about as far as between $50-$200 a month on average. This is not a great some of money to carry an entire professional career on.Having said that one finds ways to achieve what others simply take for advantage and I rely heavily on the kindness of family and friends. For instance, I have built my own website and maintain it without any prior knowledge or training in actually creating a website.I pay $16 a month for this. My most worrisome expense. Just this year I was finally practically given a digital camera worthy of cataloguing my artwork with at a mere $25...$50 if you count the tripod too.I get by on using other peoples computer which is stressful in it's own write considering I have work scattered on computers all over the east coast.I create my own promotional fliers which again I have had no graphic design experience for.I have created my own business cards via mail-order Internet.Created my own logo, figure head, and personal branding that suits me and my style as an artist. I am currently researching apparel design for my art work. I produce and publish my own art books.Along with one poetry book all done on other peoples computers. I am recently discovered a site where I can get prints of my work created for sale with no investment.Since I have no art dealer, or agent I also must find and book all of my own shows.Meaning I must submit work for deadline entries,competitions, and juried shows. All of this and I haven't even gotten to the part of salesmen.
Once this is all said and done. There is the art shows which if I am lucky, I do am having to arrange less and less of.Still, attending one of these functions one must put on their game face and be ready to huck their wears. One must convince someone that it is worth the money and that alot of time and energy goes into each piece. Which most people give a wary sense and never believe it is worth as much as one says. People in general from my experience do not realize how much art supplies cost until they visit an art store. Then one begins quickly understand why art is expensive. When all this is done and taken care of and say I do actually sell a piece that is gratifying.That is what I live for. Now with all this done. There is still the issue of keeping track of inventory, prices, names, dates, clients, exhibits, what's where, and other miscellaneous tribulations.
With all that taken care of there is still one very important part left. One has to create the art. Order the supplies. Develop concepts that can pull a body of work together. Sketch out ideas. If I would have known how much work this was going to be when I was 5 years old and decided this was my career.I would have much rather went with my back-up plan. I was just going to be the color Purple.
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