The Hardest Part of Being an Artist Isn't What You Think
I got quite triggered yesterday over an innocent comment a friend said to me over an innocent coffee.
She’s an old friend from 15 years ago in college, let’s call her Dani, and we were simply catching each other up on our lives… her second baby on the way, my art career, etc… Then it came time to pay and the classic little fight over who pays ensued. I’d say it was a pretty even battle until she hit me with the final blow…
“I’m a doctor and you’re an artist.”
WHAT A LOADED COMMENT.
Now I must say, Dani is likely the most kind-hearted person on the planet. She’s a pediatric neurologist… come on. It’s also worth noting she studied Art History in college. I know she meant nothing about me personally by this comment, and I didn’t take it personally (although if this happened a few short years ago I would have taken it personally).
What bothered me so was that this comment reveals an unfortunate assumption in our society that being an artist isn’t a financially lucrative profession.
Key word: assumption.
Back to coffee with Dani. I let her pay and then said something about the comment. It is part of my mission as an artist to debunk this erroneous myth and support more people to make their art, whether professionally or not. So I had to take this opportunity to try to alter her subconscious view.
Being the person she is, she felt so bad about it and apologized profusely. I almost felt bad for making her feel bad… but this is the cost of change, and I’m willing to pay it.
What followed was a conversation where I shared an alternative view at this topic.
What’s hard about being an artist isn’t necessarily the making money part.
Making money as an artist is just as hard or easy as any other profession. The hard part as an artist is the fact that in order to make money, you must overcome the following series of hurdles and trap doors.
First, you must do the vulnerable and brave act of making art… which is translating your heart and soul into a physical art form.
Once you make it past that, you must then do the even harder thing of sharing that vulnerable expression of your heart and soul with other people… allowing them to see this part of you. Maybe they’ll love it, maybe they’ll judge it, maybe they’ll scroll right past it and forget it even exists and feel nothing about it.
THEN once you’ve made it through that check-point, you have to simultaneously decide that you want to sell this vulnerable lil’ representation of your heart and soul, somehow come up with a price for it, AND figure out how to now share it with even more people in hopes that eventually the one person that wants to buy it sees it.
IF, and only if, you somehow make it through the aforementioned tasks and sell your first piece of art… you may then take a short rest to somehow emotionally recover and then proceed to figure out how to do this again and again repeatedly and at enough volume to make a living.
What I’m trying to get at is that being an artist isn’t practically a hard business… you make a product, market it, and sell it. The hard part is the fact that it is emotionally challenging and extremely vulnerable. Yet at the same time… it’s incredible liberating because you are being paid to literally be yourself and express yourself.
As I reflected later that day about that convo with Dani, I start to feel sad.
I felt sad as it dawned on me how many people there must be missing out on the joyful and fulfilling adventure of being an artist because they’ve been sold this lie that it won’t make money. Don’t get me wrong… it’s hard and emotionally grueling. But do you know what else is hard?
Becoming a doctor.
Going to law school.
Climbing the corporate ladder while carrying the weight of your unrealized hopes and dreams.
You get to choose your hard.
I had a cushy salary at a corporate job. It’s wasn’t hard per se, but it was emotionally hard to be spending half of my waking hours numb and unfulfilled.
Whatever I do with my life is going to be hard in its own way. It’s also going to be easy in certain ways, and fulfilling, and challenging, and financially rewarding. So, I’d rather do the thing I most want to be doing if no matter what I choose will be hard (and easy, fulfilling, challenging, and financially rewarding).
I choose to be artist.
What do you choose?
PS: And now, for some art.
Sweet Abyss, 64" x 42", Oil on Canvas
Continuum 2, 52" x 68" Oil on Canvas
