Starving Artists' Souls Never Die, Although Their Bodies Do, By Starving
The Way We Live Now: Artistically. And it's totally worth it. I mean, we didn't really think we'd have to live the "starving artist" thing so literally. But who needs $18,000 shoes or nice Christmas trees? We eat art!
A new study says "more than 50 percent of artists have seen income drop in the last year with a staggering 18 percent of respondents reporting an income loss of more than 50 percent over that period." No shit! We're the ones out here selling homemade bracelet sculptures! The market is "soft," as we would say if we cared about economic things, which we don't.
Because art is a feeling. Specifically, a feeling of hunger. With a side of deprivation, and a dash of "damn, it's cold." That's what we, as artists, "go for." We don't go for things like big Christmas trees, which then disappoint our city by being small Christmas trees, because we're too broke for the big Christmas tree. We don't go for things like $18,000 shoes (unless we made them, in which case that would be a small price to pay for art).
We don't worry about getting fired because we were secretly shopping for Christmas presents online at work. That's because we don't "get fired" or "have jobs" or "shop" or "celebrate Christmas" or "go online," except to read this specific online column. Then it's out the "door" (imaginary) for us, off to do some art, starving as we may be, content in the knowledge that we've expressed ourselves. And that is priceless.
