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Jed
sent me
this link and like a fool I read it. Not only that,
I posted the following comment (still pending approval as I write this).
Still, it helped me crystallize a long-held belief which I only recently
rediscovered as I've begun to work more and worry less...
In Walden, Thoreau writes: "I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate
texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy them. Yet
not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and
instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets,
I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them."
For an artist, art is that thing which simply must be done. I have
experimented with a number of lifestyles and have schemed various schemes
to make my art connect with money, but the result has always wasted my time
and demeaned my art.
After 20 years of making art, what works best for me is doing the
work without thought of consequence (neither money nor celebrity) and keeping
the livelihood entirely separate.
It's possible to find deep satisfaction in a "day job."
I'm afraid there's a prevalent attitude that a job must be a chore
to be escaped at earliest opp, which is why so many artists and wannabes
dream of instant wealth--a mindset which results in much conformist art.
They dream of the golden key which will unlock the door to a life of everlasting
leisure. |
