Saw a “here’s a day in the life of a full-time artist” video that 1. Activated the absolute hater in me and 2. Got me thinking about art, wealth, labor and what public-facing artists owe to their audiences. Hang with me here:
My hottest arts take is that if you are an artist who chooses to use your life as supplemental outward-facing content or give advice about living as an artist, you have an ethical duty to disclose how you make your money.
Why is this? Example: In the video I mentioned above, the most heartbreaking thing I saw were comments from aspiring artists asking how they could get on that person’s level, or how they could live like them.
Problem is, the answer likely has more to do with preexisting wealth *affording* time for the artist to live as an artist, not the other way around. Not disclosing that means people will dedicate their lives to reaching a benchmark that doesn’t exist.
How do I know this? I spent the first several years of my career trying to reach that line myself. Despite my time spent learning the theory and the craft, destroying my body and mental health to close that lifestyle gap, I am hardly farther monetarily than where I started.
The answer wasn’t that I wasn’t doing enough, nor was it that I wasn’t successful, it was that I didn’t have the wealth starting out to pad out the deficiencies built into the system. All arts markets underpay. Even if you’re an outlier, you’re still likely underpaid.
Not much else to say here, if you’re selling your Super Cool Life as an Artist, people are going to try to be like you. They deserve to know whether or not y’all are on even footing.
Wild shit to tweet in the morning I know, but it’s kinda ass how many artists are living hand to mouth and still doing everything right
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