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| http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/ |
The truth about the arts as an occupation: You won't get rich.
In fact, you most likely won't even make a living.
Recently, I read a great post by Noah Van Sciver, whose words were aimed at comic artists, but they resonated with me. He wrote:
"John Porcellino once told me that every "professional" [comic] artist has a secret of some kind. Something like their grandparents died and left them a lot of money, or their spouse has a great job and supports them."
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| http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/ |
I know a lot of artists who work at convincing their fans that they're amazingly successful doing art full-time. Maybe they believe that the truth would hurt their sales, or maybe it's just an ego thing. In either case, it's dishonest. If you're being helped along the way, fess-up to it.
I agree with John Porcellino; every artist I know--without a day
job--either has a trust fund, parental support, or a supportive spouse.
Some have all three. In my case--day jobs all along the way, and I have a supportive spouse.
And if you want to do the starving artist bit, that's fine with me--just fess-up to the "starving" part. In fact, I'da gone Bohemian for awhile if I hadn't wanted to get married. But to mislead others--especially young artists--well that's just not ethical.
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| http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/ |
When I was an art teacher, many of my students would tell me that their parents wouldn't allow them to become artists, even to the point of pulling their college money if a "lucrative career" wasn't pursued. Sheesh!
I was lucky: When I told my pragmatic, scientist father that I wanted to be an illustrator, he gave me his blessing. "Do what you love," he said. He did not say anything about "money following"--he found the pursuit of money, and conversation regarding it, pointless and boring.
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| http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/ |
Nobody would ever say that being an artist of any kind is easy. But in my case at least, not being one would have been a disaster. If I'd have chosen a more "lucrative" path, I'd have been miserable.
No, a quantity of money didn't follow--but so what? My life probably hasn't been any harder than anyone else's. It's been good, actually--and I'll take quality over quantity anytime.
Anyway, click on the link below to check out Noah Van Sciver's full post. It's a good one (way wiser than mine, and the illustrations in it actually make sense)!
Thanks for reading!
