I feel all of this deeply, especially as a person who writes the kind of work you’re talking about. You’ve illustrated perfectly the pitfalls of these kinda of sentiments about the artist and money. It’s always in the back of my head when I’m writing. I know the type of world I’m writing about is quite idealized, but it’s rooted in my very real world experiences of not having any of the time or resources to make art, to somehow ending up in a position with a lot more time and resources to pursue my creative aspirations.
My vantage point comes from years of working in intensive social service positions, working 7-3am in less than safe conditions (to say the least.) I worked full time. I was enrolled college full time. Art was a private, burning desire that always felt out of reach. I was lucky enough, eventually, to find remote work that paid well enough and had enough downtime to pursue creative interests on the clock. I became stably housed after years of moving around constantly. It took several years of making art that was trying to appeal to an algorithm until I finally arrived at a “fuck it” moment where I decided to be selfish with my art. To be fully committed to making what was interesting to me. I was only able to arrive at this moment because certain conditions aligned for me to be safe and comfortable enough to cultivate an inner world.
If the artist is working around the clock to appeal to an algorithm, they are not working to nurture their own imagination, and they can’t stay true to their unique personal vision.
But, yes, I would still like to make money. I would like for my art to somehow provide more upward mobility for me. But how do I do that while continuing to explore what feels authentic to me?
Sorry to be long winded here. This stirred up a lot of thoughts for me! I always love reading your perspectives !
No no no, this is exactly the sort of discussion I was hoping for!!!
You’re spot on in everything you say. I especially love that you use the word ‘selfish’ because I feel it really comes into trying to have a career as an artist. Because in normal jobs you finish your education, get a job and you start getting paid. But in art you have this weird dry period (or periodS) where you’re pouring everything into it but you just haven’t done enough to gain traction yet. Or like me, you have but something got derailed and you have to start again and revv up from the bottom and that can take a while.
So here you end up in a bind. You either need to find a way to burn the candle at both ends and kind of push yourself to both earn through something non-arty but keep energy for art too, or you need someone to float you. And that can get tricky. Someone pointed out how a lot of kids with rich parents end up going into the arts. Like yea, because they CAN. Nobody dreams of being a cashier.
My childhood best friend’s dad was a really great intaglio artist. Like, world renowned, had exhibitions in Florence, a retrospective in Korea, etc etc. But it never made consistent money. So his wife, who happened to really believe in his art, spent her entire life working two jobs plus gigs on the side to basically make his creative life possible. Was it worth it? She thought so. But is that a hard ask? Sure is.
I’m super happy you made it to a spot where you can support the art with the art, that’s the dream for sure ❤️
As I read this, I thought, "Uh oh, am I Jimothy?" Probably sometimes. 😅 But you are absolutely right. Early in my career, I used to yearn for a job that would let me write -- any kind of writing, even if it was for a business. Then I did that for a few years and realized it 1) wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, and 2) left me with almost zero energy to work on my own stuff. Years later, I wrote the first draft of current WIP mostly between 8-10pm, and I'm not sure I have it in me to do that again. It makes me so angry that our current system makes it so unreasonably fucking difficult to have time and energy for anything except meeting our basic material needs. It is such an impoverished way to live on so many levels. I admire your tenacity in refusing "art death" and forging a different path, and I am sad that it's so hard, and I am glad that you are making art nonetheless. It matters. It's needed. Keep going. And FWIW, I love your art and hope to be a customer myself someday!
Ahahahha I was wondering how many people were gonna go ‘wait am I Jimothy?’ 😂 But honestly we’re all Jimothy sometimes, and moreover, we NEED Jimothy. Like, if you’re trying to inspire and support artists what are you going to say? ‘Oh if you have no followers it clearly means you suck so you should probably give up’? Doesn’t work, right? We need Jimothy to help people traverse and endure that weird dry period in the beginning where they don’t yet know where their work is gonna go. Like Ira Glass’ Valley of the Suck. You need to hold on to something to survive the Valley of the Suck.
Also for anyone doing creative stuff for their own soul, Jimothy has got the right idea.
But when we come to the Professional Artist (or Professional Artist Wannabe) Zone, Jimothy becomes tricky because it’s just not that easy to ‘not chase the numbers’. From my experience I do believe that the people who have managed to set up a solid art career all had a solid grasp of self-promotion and self marketing too. (And a lot of tenacity and a bit of luck and all sorts of other stuff). For most of us the dream is just someone please pay me to do my weird shit in peace. But the world of commerce and the world of artistic creation collide at weird angles.
Have you encountered that 'war of art' book, where the author argues for the viability of art as a practical career choice in the sense that IF (and obvz it's a hefty 'if') you can somehow support yourself and fuel yourself with belief in what you're doing even though your entire world will discredit your efforts to put in the same number of hours and energy and focus that it takes to become, say, a doctor or a lawyer, then you're equally likely to be financially successful (it's a bit clunky all in one sentence like that but his intention is to cheerlead). Wonder if you agree with that
So, yes, I largely do believe that. I can definitely say that of all the artists I have sort of grown up with in the online space, the ones who made it are the ones who kept showing up most consistently. I’m absolutely certain my art would be in a way better place financially if I had been more consistent.
Another thing I can say from observation is that a LOT of artists who have made it are single/childless. (At least one of those two). Not all but it’s definitely a bit of a trend among the people whose careers I have been following as I tried to build my own. And that frankly makes a whole lot of sense. For me to do good work I need a massive amount of hours poured into a project, and it needs to be consistent. And matching that with the needs of a family plus any sort of job is just…. it’s just a whole lot of things.
And for sure there are super organized people who make it work but I am clearly not them 😅
So yeah, I would say if life gives you the CONDITIONS to be able to pour all that energy into something most other people are going to think is a self indulgent waste of time, then yeah your chances of making it are wayyyy better.
I pulled together a massive list of illustration agencies and was gonna approach one per week over the course of a year-year and a half but then a ton of life/family stuff happened and whoop - that goes straight to the backburner. I still want to do it but I wanted to do a few more pieces first, but then that clashes with looking for a day job, and that’s necessitated by a mortgage, and and and….. we need UBI, is what it is.
I'm currently in a golden situation where I've got all the conditions I need to just make art all day, but that means I'm totally confronted with my inner blocks, doubts, confusions about how to utilise the time effectively, a very very very squiggly brain, plus the impending knowing that after x many more months this art making thing will somehow have to turn into hard cash or I'll have to find another income source.
I'm feeling regretful about how effectively I've used the time so far, but am just adopting the plan of having no plan and being like a tree just producing things indiscriminately and letting them fall on the forest floor and whether they take root or not my only job is to just keep unconditionally making more for the love of it.
The question of to ubi or not to ubi I think is a question of what motivates humans to share their truest gifts. I consistently notice that survival fears only serve to put me in freeze or flight states. For example, when I was stuck in China doing an English teaching job that was giving me daily panic attacks, I rallied all of my inner resources and creativity not to knuckle down and just do it, but to get the hell outta there. I consider it the saner option.
Not to mention the whole headfuckery of how art tends to come from unpressured spacious timeless relaxation. It's such a nervous system balancing act to be able to urgently get into that state on fear of eviction.
But I also notice I'm motivated by positives. Not: I have one day to finish this symphony before I'm out on the street. But: I have one day to finish this symphony before the orchestra perform it. At least for me, that kind of extrinsic motivation activates superhuman creativity and focus. Where your work is wanted and it matters. It's just the right kinda stress. (I currently have no orchestras chomping for my tunes so I gotta conjure that style of motivation up however I can. Sending friends songs for their birthdays is one fun example)
Ohhh the squiggly brain plus deadlines is a rough combo, you never know if it’s gonna turn into hyper productivity or total paralysis.
We also aren’t the greatest with consistency, and I find it’s really key to success in these kinds of endeavors.
I generally support UBI for everyone, not just artists, because from all the reading I have done on how it plays out when experimented with it’s just a total benefit for everyone, except corporations who want wage slaves.
I fully agree and I'm so down for a needs based society
Only thing that concerns me is this dystopic view that once people are no longer required as wage slaves then we become dispensible to those corporations.
It's like this horrid "you will own nothing and be happy" idea. I actually think it's a groovy enough vision, more or less, but my issue is with the people who are selling it and the relevant question is who WILL own everything. Including us.
I think we have a collective inner work to do learning the difference between ownership and belonging, because otherwise, when it becomes the contentious issue du jour the debate will be framed as "you will own nothing and be happy" vs private property. And the real issue gets obscured yet again.
We're looking for a natural way and we gotta be so wary of corporations saying "Hi, I'm nature!!" "I'm mom! Give everything to me!"
We can totally do it though. We're a decentralised intelligence. I'm hopeful.
Oh yeah, definitely decentralization and a dismantling of some of the existing power structures. Honestly my guess is it will become a lot worse before it becomes better. The US for one seems to be leaning towards dropping all pretense and just going full tyranny, and a few other ‘western bastions of liberty and human values’ are following suit. But these things do turn around eventually, they just sometimes need to be lubricated by a lot of blood.
I feel all of this deeply, especially as a person who writes the kind of work you’re talking about. You’ve illustrated perfectly the pitfalls of these kinda of sentiments about the artist and money. It’s always in the back of my head when I’m writing. I know the type of world I’m writing about is quite idealized, but it’s rooted in my very real world experiences of not having any of the time or resources to make art, to somehow ending up in a position with a lot more time and resources to pursue my creative aspirations.
My vantage point comes from years of working in intensive social service positions, working 7-3am in less than safe conditions (to say the least.) I worked full time. I was enrolled college full time. Art was a private, burning desire that always felt out of reach. I was lucky enough, eventually, to find remote work that paid well enough and had enough downtime to pursue creative interests on the clock. I became stably housed after years of moving around constantly. It took several years of making art that was trying to appeal to an algorithm until I finally arrived at a “fuck it” moment where I decided to be selfish with my art. To be fully committed to making what was interesting to me. I was only able to arrive at this moment because certain conditions aligned for me to be safe and comfortable enough to cultivate an inner world.
If the artist is working around the clock to appeal to an algorithm, they are not working to nurture their own imagination, and they can’t stay true to their unique personal vision.
But, yes, I would still like to make money. I would like for my art to somehow provide more upward mobility for me. But how do I do that while continuing to explore what feels authentic to me?
Sorry to be long winded here. This stirred up a lot of thoughts for me! I always love reading your perspectives !
No no no, this is exactly the sort of discussion I was hoping for!!!
You’re spot on in everything you say. I especially love that you use the word ‘selfish’ because I feel it really comes into trying to have a career as an artist. Because in normal jobs you finish your education, get a job and you start getting paid. But in art you have this weird dry period (or periodS) where you’re pouring everything into it but you just haven’t done enough to gain traction yet. Or like me, you have but something got derailed and you have to start again and revv up from the bottom and that can take a while.
So here you end up in a bind. You either need to find a way to burn the candle at both ends and kind of push yourself to both earn through something non-arty but keep energy for art too, or you need someone to float you. And that can get tricky. Someone pointed out how a lot of kids with rich parents end up going into the arts. Like yea, because they CAN. Nobody dreams of being a cashier.
My childhood best friend’s dad was a really great intaglio artist. Like, world renowned, had exhibitions in Florence, a retrospective in Korea, etc etc. But it never made consistent money. So his wife, who happened to really believe in his art, spent her entire life working two jobs plus gigs on the side to basically make his creative life possible. Was it worth it? She thought so. But is that a hard ask? Sure is.
I’m super happy you made it to a spot where you can support the art with the art, that’s the dream for sure ❤️
As I read this, I thought, "Uh oh, am I Jimothy?" Probably sometimes. 😅 But you are absolutely right. Early in my career, I used to yearn for a job that would let me write -- any kind of writing, even if it was for a business. Then I did that for a few years and realized it 1) wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, and 2) left me with almost zero energy to work on my own stuff. Years later, I wrote the first draft of current WIP mostly between 8-10pm, and I'm not sure I have it in me to do that again. It makes me so angry that our current system makes it so unreasonably fucking difficult to have time and energy for anything except meeting our basic material needs. It is such an impoverished way to live on so many levels. I admire your tenacity in refusing "art death" and forging a different path, and I am sad that it's so hard, and I am glad that you are making art nonetheless. It matters. It's needed. Keep going. And FWIW, I love your art and hope to be a customer myself someday!
Ahahahha I was wondering how many people were gonna go ‘wait am I Jimothy?’ 😂 But honestly we’re all Jimothy sometimes, and moreover, we NEED Jimothy. Like, if you’re trying to inspire and support artists what are you going to say? ‘Oh if you have no followers it clearly means you suck so you should probably give up’? Doesn’t work, right? We need Jimothy to help people traverse and endure that weird dry period in the beginning where they don’t yet know where their work is gonna go. Like Ira Glass’ Valley of the Suck. You need to hold on to something to survive the Valley of the Suck.
Also for anyone doing creative stuff for their own soul, Jimothy has got the right idea.
But when we come to the Professional Artist (or Professional Artist Wannabe) Zone, Jimothy becomes tricky because it’s just not that easy to ‘not chase the numbers’. From my experience I do believe that the people who have managed to set up a solid art career all had a solid grasp of self-promotion and self marketing too. (And a lot of tenacity and a bit of luck and all sorts of other stuff). For most of us the dream is just someone please pay me to do my weird shit in peace. But the world of commerce and the world of artistic creation collide at weird angles.
I got filled with a roaring YES reading this.
Have you encountered that 'war of art' book, where the author argues for the viability of art as a practical career choice in the sense that IF (and obvz it's a hefty 'if') you can somehow support yourself and fuel yourself with belief in what you're doing even though your entire world will discredit your efforts to put in the same number of hours and energy and focus that it takes to become, say, a doctor or a lawyer, then you're equally likely to be financially successful (it's a bit clunky all in one sentence like that but his intention is to cheerlead). Wonder if you agree with that
So, yes, I largely do believe that. I can definitely say that of all the artists I have sort of grown up with in the online space, the ones who made it are the ones who kept showing up most consistently. I’m absolutely certain my art would be in a way better place financially if I had been more consistent.
Another thing I can say from observation is that a LOT of artists who have made it are single/childless. (At least one of those two). Not all but it’s definitely a bit of a trend among the people whose careers I have been following as I tried to build my own. And that frankly makes a whole lot of sense. For me to do good work I need a massive amount of hours poured into a project, and it needs to be consistent. And matching that with the needs of a family plus any sort of job is just…. it’s just a whole lot of things.
And for sure there are super organized people who make it work but I am clearly not them 😅
So yeah, I would say if life gives you the CONDITIONS to be able to pour all that energy into something most other people are going to think is a self indulgent waste of time, then yeah your chances of making it are wayyyy better.
I pulled together a massive list of illustration agencies and was gonna approach one per week over the course of a year-year and a half but then a ton of life/family stuff happened and whoop - that goes straight to the backburner. I still want to do it but I wanted to do a few more pieces first, but then that clashes with looking for a day job, and that’s necessitated by a mortgage, and and and….. we need UBI, is what it is.
It's so much.
I'm currently in a golden situation where I've got all the conditions I need to just make art all day, but that means I'm totally confronted with my inner blocks, doubts, confusions about how to utilise the time effectively, a very very very squiggly brain, plus the impending knowing that after x many more months this art making thing will somehow have to turn into hard cash or I'll have to find another income source.
I'm feeling regretful about how effectively I've used the time so far, but am just adopting the plan of having no plan and being like a tree just producing things indiscriminately and letting them fall on the forest floor and whether they take root or not my only job is to just keep unconditionally making more for the love of it.
The question of to ubi or not to ubi I think is a question of what motivates humans to share their truest gifts. I consistently notice that survival fears only serve to put me in freeze or flight states. For example, when I was stuck in China doing an English teaching job that was giving me daily panic attacks, I rallied all of my inner resources and creativity not to knuckle down and just do it, but to get the hell outta there. I consider it the saner option.
Not to mention the whole headfuckery of how art tends to come from unpressured spacious timeless relaxation. It's such a nervous system balancing act to be able to urgently get into that state on fear of eviction.
But I also notice I'm motivated by positives. Not: I have one day to finish this symphony before I'm out on the street. But: I have one day to finish this symphony before the orchestra perform it. At least for me, that kind of extrinsic motivation activates superhuman creativity and focus. Where your work is wanted and it matters. It's just the right kinda stress. (I currently have no orchestras chomping for my tunes so I gotta conjure that style of motivation up however I can. Sending friends songs for their birthdays is one fun example)
Ohhh the squiggly brain plus deadlines is a rough combo, you never know if it’s gonna turn into hyper productivity or total paralysis.
We also aren’t the greatest with consistency, and I find it’s really key to success in these kinds of endeavors.
I generally support UBI for everyone, not just artists, because from all the reading I have done on how it plays out when experimented with it’s just a total benefit for everyone, except corporations who want wage slaves.
I fully agree and I'm so down for a needs based society
Only thing that concerns me is this dystopic view that once people are no longer required as wage slaves then we become dispensible to those corporations.
It's like this horrid "you will own nothing and be happy" idea. I actually think it's a groovy enough vision, more or less, but my issue is with the people who are selling it and the relevant question is who WILL own everything. Including us.
I think we have a collective inner work to do learning the difference between ownership and belonging, because otherwise, when it becomes the contentious issue du jour the debate will be framed as "you will own nothing and be happy" vs private property. And the real issue gets obscured yet again.
We're looking for a natural way and we gotta be so wary of corporations saying "Hi, I'm nature!!" "I'm mom! Give everything to me!"
We can totally do it though. We're a decentralised intelligence. I'm hopeful.
Oh yeah, definitely decentralization and a dismantling of some of the existing power structures. Honestly my guess is it will become a lot worse before it becomes better. The US for one seems to be leaning towards dropping all pretense and just going full tyranny, and a few other ‘western bastions of liberty and human values’ are following suit. But these things do turn around eventually, they just sometimes need to be lubricated by a lot of blood.
Lubricated by blood! Ouch! 😅