The Starving Artist Myth

Fork in the Road between starving and thriving artist

I guess I do have a grudge dating back to my early years in school. It’s not really with anyone or anything, It’s more of an opinion widely held by the community I grew up in, where being an artist was something that was only considered to be a hobby. It certainly wasn’t considered to be something you could do as a living. Unless you wanted to be a designer or an architect. So despite having a keen interest in art, I decided to forget about doing what I loved to follow a more conventional career path. Which led me down many roads that in the end weren’t satisfying and weren’t very profitable anyway. I basically could have been doing something I loved while making no money, instead of something I hated while making no money. However I do believe the truth is that if you are doing something you are passionate about, something that you enjoy spending time on and get excited about that you will eventually profit in some way. Even if it’s not making a fortune, I believe happiness is more important than wealth. Sure way back when I was at school was before the internet, which has since opened up and continues to open up many possibilities for obsessed artists to reach their audiences. But if I at least stuck with art for all those in between years, I would have such a larger body of work, skills and training behind me. So at 44, I decided it was time to give art another chance. Since then I have illustrated two published kids books and have almost completed my third and sold around 150 NFT’s something I could have only dreamed about as a teenager, not that I would have known what an NFT was… I still don’t. So never let people or society dictate what you can and can’t be. Follow your heart and your skills will grow along with your potential to earn an income doing it.