[TheForge] Re: Starving artist

[Ekaterina Harrison]

Hi All,

Up until now I have not posted on this forum , but I have been  
following the various threads for a little while.

The "starving, tortured artist" bit has often been a trigger point of  
sorts for me on many levels. I have even on occasions been quite  
indignant on the subject! LOL and LAMOF (laughing at my own folly) I  
have always hated this stereotype and have often fought fiercely  
against it.  I sure as hell was not going to get caught up in it.  
Funny how the very things you fight against sneak up and grab you from  
behind, in ways you least expect.

It made me cringe when I saw an artist putting on the tortured,  
victimized role. I thought to myself " How can one feel tortured when  
one is doing that which makes the heart sing?".
In-deed, I found this to be true for me. I feel inspired and uplifted  
when I do work that rings true to me and find the journey to be both  
challenging and exciting as it unfolds. However, I have in-deed felt  
truly tortured when I had turned my back on myself, in order to  
appease "the market" (in my perception).

I have heard it said many a time that a real artist is poor. "No, not  
me!!! I am not going to let this happen to me, I will prove it  
different !!!" I said to me-self.
True I had no money to begin with, but I could improvise. So I  
scrapped together all my resources ( my desire, knowledge, experience  
and information), found a piece of land for next to nothing because it  
was a junk pile (treasure) and built all my tools from it and blah,  
blah, blah.  This was a good approach for me, but within it was the  
trap. Because I built the shop and tools from scrap materials, I did  
not spend too much money. In this regard I became isolated from the  
REALITY of the market.  It took me a long time to understand and see  
the parallels in value within time and personal resources  and  
monetary resources.  Until I could see these parallels for myself I  
was unable to price my work appropriately, even though it had been  
pointed out to me before and I certainly never did believe in being a  
DAMN STARVING ARTIST. LAMOF

What I have realized is that if I did not value my time then in  
reality I did not value myself. If a person does not feel their own  
value then how can their product be any more valuable? I have found  
that feelings speak louder than words and in this regard no amount of  
posturing is going to cover up the feeling behind it.

With laughter and thank you all for all your sharing,
Ekaterina






On Mar 26, 2008, at 3:03 AM, theforge-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:

> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:11:45 -0300
> From: mspencer at tallships.ca (Mike Spencer)
> Subject: [TheForge] Re: File Making, sniffing up  wrought iron
> To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
> Message-ID: <200803260811.m2Q8Bj714478 at bogus.nodomain.nowhere>
>
>
> Andy Vida wrote:
>
>> The whole gold rush thing could really fly IMO.  People eat stuff
>> like that right up... especially the more-money-than-brains yuppies  
>> in
>> NYC who pride themselves on their trendy chic style-du-jour.
>
> Don't you realize, Andy, that some people don't want to bother even to
> think about conning the marks?  That it would disturb their wa to do
> so?  That they might even not want things they make to fall into the
> hands of such people?
>
> You're saying, "Hey, hey, shape up, you're not maxing out your
> revenue. man.  This is bidness, y'know?  C'mon, give Frosty 10 off the
> top and he'll make you a lot of money.  You can double production,
> quintuple revenue and then you'll be gettin' a name for yourself.
> Then you'll be able to market to the..."
>
> Artists don't have to starve in order to prove that they're pure at
> heart.  But they have to follow their star and who are you to say that
> they should digress from that journey to bring their level of
> consumption up to your standards should their star happen to lead them
> otherwise and elswhere?  Jeez.
>
>
> - Mike
>
> -- 
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>                                                          /V\
> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^