Discussions
Do artistic careers pay?
Posted by gracechendawson • 6/05/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: artistic careers
Being a writer, is an introduction to what living in poverty is like. Would it be better if I had just shut up and took up accounting? All those in the artistic field, voice your thoughts!
User Comments
-
well stripping is artistic and i hear it pays loads
-
porn is not art; art is porn -
@worm...speaking of art...
I totally ♥ your photos... -
humm, okay??!
-
Well if you have a body to die for and uninhibited sense of showmanship, then stripping can pay loads.
-
-
Well personally I've made money as a freelancer, and I know plenty more who have. Hone your skill and promote yourself, build a resumer and be persistant, you'll make money. Artistic careers make tons, it's just that it takes a persistant person.
-
Ah that's something positive that I want to hear. Yes, everything boils down to marketing doesn't it? Someone once said, whether a venture does well or fails, it is all up to the person behind it.
-
-
most of my friends from college were/are artists. Most of them still create art, but most of them have other jobs that pay the bills. -
Depends on your talent, persistence and luck -
From what I've heard, if you're really serious about pursuing a creative profession, the most important thing is to treat it like a business.
Have a PLACE, TIME, and PURPOSE to everything you do. If the rest of the world is working 40 hour weeks, you should be putting in that amount of time or more. If you really enjoy it and treat it seriously, hopefully everything should work out.-
Yes, I agree. Persistence and discipline are the most important aspects of any successful business. Financial acumen comes close too.
-
-
No, not unless you do as noetic suggests and treat it like a business and even then it is very very dodgy. I tried, and I followed all the advice, marketing etc etc.and what happens is your spend more time running a business than creating. I know only a couple of people who can manage to support themselves (with help from their working wives) but they survive on commissions for huge projects.
My other friends have jobs to support their art, and pay the bills. -
I am a singer and run it as a business and I do just fine, thanks -
Some luck plays into it, but just sticking to it is what really counts.
I have been an artist all my life.. Self employed, freelance , visual artist-
I doubt I could have ever held a regular job anyway.
My biggest advice besides sticking to it - Be nice to other artists. Over the years friends I met have become very important contacts.
As you will slowly gain credibility so will many of them.
Examples:
Freelance photographer I met in the late 80's later became a staff photograper and then eventually and editor of a magazine. Now days he runs the show for a large publisher of multiple magazines.
A comic writer who couldn't sell his work got a small break through me in the early 90's... a few years later he started his own company that now publishes graphic novels and adult theme greating cards and posters plus a monthly magazine.
I could goon and on.
Just remember to be nice to others in your field. Eventually some of them will be the people who rule the roost.
Then when you are making a great living at your art you will have time to waste on hobbies log blogs or whatever else catches your fancy.-
oh my gosh, how right you are about being nice to other artists. I can't tell you how many just take it for granted you help them promote them but never pay forward themselves, or just get plain snotty.
I wish my marketing and creative dedication had payed off but I don't create the kind of work that is going to support me. I have also accepted that I can't do commissions and paint bread and butter art which is an important factor.
-
-
I saw a similar question on Yahoo answer, and someone said he was making a living writing for others but if you want to write in your own name you won't make much money.
Artists and Technicians are on the same kind of boat: they don't know how to make a good presentation of themselves. Just look at their website -
Being an artist is being an artist. "Career" is not a factor. Being an artist - having a need to take one's reaction to life, the world, and somehow - through music, rhythm, imagery, words, moving (dance)- reflect it back to the world. It's like being left-handed. It can have its drawbacks, its advantages, its acceptability, its uniqueness. It's how we deal with the world.
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
