Wednesday, March 19, 2014

never starving

Since I am an artist, I hear the term "starving artist" more than the average person, and it creates a deep fission of annoyance in my heart and mind every time. It's the term itself, and the way people say it.

Sometimes it's said casually, which shows the speaker is not thinking about it, just taking the myth as an understood truth. Sometimes with an edge of derision of self-righteousness, as if the artist in question-- or maybe all artists-- asked for starvation by choosing art and will get what they deserve. Sometimes it's said with earnestness, and this is the worst, because it often comes from other artists who think they must suffer in order to be an artist. Or their current low economic status is correct and will never change.

Also, I deeply dislike what the term implies: that for anyone to choose to be an artist in this world of practical need and hard realities means you will go hungry, not be able to provide for yourself, and suffer deeply.

I have a client, a good, longtime one, who discussed with me how his daughter wants to be an artist but he has persistently tried to steer her into a profession where "she can make some money." When I suggested she could make money making her art, he waved me off.  No no, honey, people don't make real money doing what you do, is the message I got from the encounter. Never mind he's handed over hundreds, if not thousands of his dollars to me for my art.

Artists don't starve, they are too creative and smart for starvation. They figure out a way to survive before they starve.

I understand the starving artist myth is a metaphor, and I find it to be an supremely annihilating one. The metaphor implies that creativity is of the lowest value in our culture, unless it directly serves the culture in the form of generating money. Lots of it. And that people who choose to be artists are of similarly low value.

I think the metaphor persists because people understand there's truth in there, but it's backwards-- it's the culture that is actually starving for artists, dying for beauty, gasping for the meaning art brings to us. I believe there is a deep fear of articulating the truth of this because of the long hard look we would have to take at the way we live now, which debases and profits off the destruction of the most beautiful, valuable things we have.

I encounter people all the time who wanted to be an artist, but because of parental and or/cultural pressure, chose to go into a money-making or conventional profession.  And because their true calling has been denied and they are not creating for us, for the world, we all starve. What beautiful works have not been made, what deep truths have not been uncovered, what leaps of evolution have not been made because the people who would have brought that to us were coerced and intimidated into serving another calling?

For those of you thinking right now "real" artists will always yield to their calling, we haven't lost anything, I say bullshit.

I aim this post directly at teachers, parents, and other people who have any kind of authority over young people's lives. I want you to ask yourself how you respond when a young person says they want to be an artist when they grow up. Do you say, "Artists have really hard lives"? Do you say, "I hope you plan to learn something practical too so you have something to fall back on"? Do you say, "How do you plan on making money by being an artist"? Then I want you to recall what you wanted to be when you grew up, and try to feel how it would feel to hear those words when you stated your intention. I think that not many people who read my blog would say any of those things, but maybe you know someone who would, or has. Send this post to them.

I wonder what would happen if people let go of this myth. What if every child who stated they wanted to be an artist was met with "What kind of artist do you want to be?" What kind of new world could we create with that simple response?

18 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks. I had to re-write that post about 10 times over the past couple of years before I could skim off all of the overt hostility I feel about this subject.

      Delete
  2. I agree with you, the term starving artist grates on my nerves, too. There is another 'myth' that accompanies this romantic idea of the artist starving. It's that the artist will give up a 'regular' life for their art. That it's a mark of dedication to their art, they must do it to the exclusion of having heat or decent food. And then, taken one step further, that the artist, to be a true artist, must NOT make a decent, successful career and life. If you make money at it is it truly art, since you haven't suffered for it. (Selling out is mentioned often.) Many of my customers love that vision, giving everything up for art. We use humor to disabuse them of this idea.
    I do appreciate reading your blog. Thanks for writing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the selling out thing pervades many creative endeavors, another toxic notion. The other myth we can talk about is that artists are unstable or crazy, or you have to be to be great. I think the greatest artists also have the strongest focus and work ethic of anyone on the planet... but that is not a common notion.

      Delete
  3. YES! thanks for taking the time to articulate just how backwards it really is. Well put Whitney.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AMAZING post and perfectly said! I feel exactly this same way! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts so eloquently about a subject so near to my heart! I'm going to share this!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I keep trying to leave a comment and I agree so strongly with this that that the comment keeps turning into a NOVEL. I'm trying so hard to keep it brief.

    I spent my childhood creating and dreaming of ways I would create as an adult. I was told repeatedly how impractical it was to make a living that way until I gave up that part of myself to be "responsible" (because clearly being creative and being responsible are mutually exclusive, right?). I spent ten years being miserable and trying to find creative things to do at each "regular" job I had as an adult.

    For the past year and half I've had my own creative business and it's like I finally allowed myself to be who I'm supposed to be. I've found that creativity is not only limited to making art, it is quite useful in solving problems and making a budget stretch further. I've finally let the creative part of my brain off the leash and to my great surprise I have a deep newfound confidence. And if it ever comes to that point, I know that I CAN feed my family selling things I create. It doesn't matter who says differently. I KNOW.

    (This was as brief as I could make it! LOL)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Giselle, maybe you should turn your story into a novel! You are one of the willful ones to make an escape from the misery of unfulfilling work into a creative life. Congratulations!

      Delete
    2. Thank you. :) I have a blog but I just write posts that I never publish. That's my next fear to overcome. I always feel like writing after reading your blog, actually. Very inspiring.

      Delete
  6. Amen! And can we just get away from the whole idea that you'll never be fulfilled in life if you don't do something that makes lots of money?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The truth is that everyone is creative. Everyone already is an artist to some extent in their lives. Just being in a relationship helps to create something new. We cook, we sew, we garden... We are inveterate creators throughout our lives. Some of us get to do it for a living.

    And the truth is also that no matter what profession you go into some people working at it will be 'starving'. There is no absolute guarantee that we will find more than part time jobs in any field, that we won't get laid off, that we will not have expenses throughout our lives that we can't cover doing what we are doing. Its not that this or that job is a path to starvation, its that life itself carries with it the threat of just scraping by. Artists are no different than anyone else, though the truth is also that making art often pays less than many other types of work.

    Which is also why many artists do their work when they can but support themselves mostly with an outside often non-art job. There is nothing wrong with this, and its NOT a lesser version of being an artist. You make it happen however you can. Being an artist doesn't mean that we get full time wages for full time work. In fact it doesn't mean anything connected with how and if we get paid really. What being an artist means is that we make work creatively and we fit this practice into our lives however we can.

    We don't need to tell these discouraging parents that they are wrong to prevent their sons and daughters from becoming artists. What we need to tell them is that they ALREADY ARE artists and that its important to being human that we explore different means of self expression. Getting an education as an artist doesn't mean we are necessarily planning for future jobs as artists, but that we are preparing to be better more fulfilled human beings. Its not just about art but the way we live.

    If art helps make life more meaningful then studying art helps us discover how to make our own lives more meaningful. The people who don't value art won't get this, but anyone with sensitivity to and appreciation of their own creativity will perhaps recognize this......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carter, you are deep and you always have a way of taking the discussion to a new level. I think that division that you are talking about is part of the leap we need to take as a culture, to understand that to be human is to be creative, we can't help it! And creativity is not relegated solely to the canvas, the potter's wheel, etc. You have brought up so many issues that it really requires a whole new post to address, and I thank you for bringing up a whole other facet to the discussion.

      Delete
  8. The problem is with the magical thinking that you have to do/be one or the other and that it will work out. Why do we not encourage our kids to have more than one calling, more than one career? Our culture's focus is a bit onesided. And why on earth do we think that if we are passionate about art that it should be all we do all day long all our lives and it should pay the bills? These are romantic notions, for sure, but I'd rather teach the kids to love creating for the sake of joyful creating, rather than filling their heads with the belief that it 'must' be well paid to be a worthwhile endeavor. Many endeavors are worthwhile: some pay the bills, some feed the soul, some do both for a while, some suck your soul. Our kids need to learn who they are and what they value (and why) to be able to navigate their lives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I think in many ways our culture is on the quest for security above all, and the hunger we have for something greater or more nourishing clashes with the need for security... but it doesn't have to.

      Delete
  9. We are so lucky that we even have the option to consider being an artist. Even if it doesn't work out to make money, there are no guarantee no matter how passionate you are. And I love what you said: "

    it's the culture that is actually starving for artists, dying for beauty, gasping for the meaning art brings to us. I believe there is a deep fear of articulating the truth of this because of the long hard look we would have to take at the way we live now, which debases and profits off the destruction of the most beautiful, valuable things we have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hm. I don't think it's luck, really. I think maybe you are saying that we are lucky to have so many choices, but even with our wealth of choices there is the constant expectation that the only good choice is the one that can bring you the most money. As Carter pointed out, no matter what choice you make, there is no guarantee that you will be financially rewarded.

      Delete
  10. What a great post! Thank you!
    The world is absolutely starving for art, especially art into our everyday lives, and not placed in an apart world, like with galleries and museums.
    I do believe it is good to be aware that being an artist requires persistence and wit to make a living doing what you dream up. Some people choose an art study out of an ideology and then realise halfway trough or at the end that they do not want to live in the uncertaincy for money or don't want to do the effort to get the work out there. It is not for everyone.. True, work as an employee can be tiring in a different sense and might not be certain either.. It is just different and it is good to look at what you go for.
    (I did art school, am working as an artist and I am very happy about it.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have always loved pottery. I tried my hand making it. It didn't work out, I am horrible at it.

    Alena | http://www.annmarie.com/shop_nicholas_mosse.html

    ReplyDelete