Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The problem of making a living

The lazy artist-type who sleeps on their friend's couch or lives in their mom's basement is a popular cliche, but I don't think most of us who want to be professional artists fit into this mold. I believe most of us are industrious, but we march to the beat of our own drum. We want to support ourselves and our families. But we also want to do what to do what we love.Making sure you have enough money to eat and having the time, focus and energy to create consistently great art seems to be a constant dilemma for aspiring artists. This leaves many of us feeling discouraged and relegating our art to hobby status. But this doesn't have to be the case. I came across these videos of talks given by artists who make their living with their art in alternative ways. Especially if you are savvy online, there are many things that you can do to keep yourself afloat. Maybe you won't be able to quit your day job just yet, but you'll have more money for supplies and perhaps you may be able to scale back to work part-time.


1 comment:

  1. Hi Spring Flowerchild,

    I found your blog through Betsy Lewis' blog. I am also in Atlanta and recently started this group http://www.meetup.com/ArtMamas-ATL/ for artists who are serious about advancing their careers but are also mothers. It is an art collective with a twist. If you are interested I think you would be perfect for the group, sometime towards the end of Feb. beginning of March we will be officially enlisting some services from Betsy... at very least check us out.

    I'm really enjoying your blog this happens to also be one of my goals for 2010 you will help inspire me!

    All the best!

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