Who wants to be a starving artist?

[Peter Lloyd]

Not a very attractive proposition, I realize.

So what can we do? What do you do? To keep from starving as you pursue your creative dreams?

For reference, you can read Walrus Teeth.

I'll eventually follow up that post with some of your comments.

[Robert Alan Black]

Well, I've been teaching at DePaul university and the School of the Art Institute. Doing a bit of arts-related strategic planning consulting work and creating this community. I've also finished a small book, "America Needs You! Why You Should Become a Creativity Champion" that I will self publish and market using Lulu.com I've done some training and speaking around creativity and civic engagement and I hope this book will help me reach new audiences and alliances.

[Peter Lloyd]

Tom,

I like the book title. Best of luck with self-publishing. I've head of lulu.com. I'll check it out again.

Tom Tresser said:

Well, I've been teaching at DePaul university and the School of the Art Institute. Doing a bit of arts-related strategic planning consulting work and creating this community. I've also finished a small book, "America Needs You! Why You Should Become a Creativity Champion" that I will self publish and market using Lulu.com I've done some training and speaking around creativity and civic engagement and I hope this book will help me reach new audiences and alliances.

[KateClugston]

*raises her hand* Sure I'll be a starving artist, not because I want to per se, but because it is sometimes the best option. At the end of the day (after working some boring job I resent) I have no energy or inspiration left to be creative with my personal projects. Some people can do it, I can't. So my future as an artist will be as a starving one. I have tried this lifestyle in bursts over the years and I have been on unemployment benefit many, many times and I can tell you right now, as long as you play by the rules and don't get anxiety from having a very limited income, it is totally underrated. (I should note here I am talking about Australia and the unemployment benefit in Australia is MORE than what I now earn at some "boring" casual 40 hr a week job here in the USA, so I am not sure this lifestyle will be accessible in the USA, humf.)

A few years ago, after a string of boring jobs, I was lucky enough to be employed as an artist working with an arts company as a community performance director. I applied creative thinking, problem solving and creative methodologies to my work as well as being on the floor facilitating groups and directing live art. But even while inside an arts company we were all under paid, pushed to our limits and effectively still 'starving artists'. The arts industry has been pickled by a culture of endless dedication, hard work and passion which are exploited and lead to burn out. We are all in competition for the small pools of money from Government and philanthropic foundations and thus we make outlandish promises, to make bigger shows using multiple artforms, engaging multiple community groups and find ourselves under the pump to live up to the promises. The funding bodies have come to expect more for less, so you are not competitive unless you are offering the (for lack of a suitably large word) WORLD.

As for what we do, well I feel like I have been giving it a solid go yet I am still largely unsatisfied by the lack of time I can give to unpaid creative projects. I cannot resort to the unemployment benefit now I am in the USA and on a 'working' visa. So... ummm. My vision is for the future is a full time creative job and small manageable creative projects on the side. When I am more settled and find collaborators I'll be ready to do something bigger, and when the faith is restored in the US economy I will quit work, hit up some foundations and private donors for cash, make some friends in high places so I can borrow rehearsal space and go for it. And yep, I'll probably be starving again. Hopefully by the time I want to have a family, I will have set myself up, starving for my own art is one thing, starving my baby would be uncool. So I am curious, how do the parents do it? I guess I have had it EASY!

[Peter Lloyd]

Kate,

Congratulations on your courage and perseverance. It's great while you're young with fewer responsibilities clinging to your ankles. Especially in the US, where if you don't make a gluttonous profit for someone else, who has absolutely nothing to offer the world in the way of talent or art, you might as well be considered worthless.

I'm enlightened by your description of the funding rat race. It reminds me of an even more sinister and debilitating force favoring starvation of the artist. Several websites now give buyers access to thousands of freelance writers. This has forced prices paid for writing down to appallingly low numbers. It seems to me that people in developing countries, able to live on the price of a Whopper with cheese for a week, are bidding against English-speaking writers, who pay more for gas to drive to the Burger King. I shudder to think what kind of writing buyers are getting.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes a similar dynamic in Gulag Archipelago. A guard, under pressure from above to get a hundred men quickly out of a cell made for twenty, barks as he waves a club, "Everyone out, except the last."

What brings you to the US? I ask, because I'm wondering whether it makes sense to add "move to a country that appreciates artists" to my list of recommendations for starving artists in Walrus Teeth.

KateClugston said:

*raises her hand* Sure I'll be a starving artist, not because I want to per se, but because it is sometimes the best option. At the end of the day (after working some boring job I resent) I have no energy or inspiration left to be creative with my personal projects. Some people can do it, I can't. So my future as an artist will be as a starving one. I have tried this lifestyle in bursts over the years and I have been on unemployment benefit many, many times and I can tell you right now, as long as you play by the rules and don't get anxiety from having a very limited income, it is totally underrated. (I should note here I am talking about Australia and the unemployment benefit in Australia is MORE than what I now earn at some "boring" casual 40 hr a week job here in the USA, so I am not sure this lifestyle will be accessible in the USA, humf.)
A few years ago, after a string of boring jobs, I was lucky enough to be employed as an artist working with an arts company as a community performance director. I applied creative thinking, problem solving and creative methodologies to my work as well as being on the floor facilitating groups and directing live art. But even while inside an arts company we were all under paid, pushed to our limits and effectively still 'starving artists'. The arts industry has been pickled by a culture of endless dedication, hard work and passion which are exploited and lead to burn out. We are all in competition for the small pools of money from Government and philanthropic foundations and thus we make outlandish promises, to make bigger shows using multiple artforms, engaging multiple community groups and find ourselves under the pump to live up to the promises. The funding bodies have come to expect more for less, so you are not competitive unless you are offering the (for lack of a suitably large word) WORLD. As for what we do, well I feel like I have been giving it a solid go yet I am still largely unsatisfied by the lack of time I can give to unpaid creative projects. I cannot resort to the unemployment benefit now I am in the USA and on a 'working' visa. So... ummm. My vision is for the future is a full time creative job and small manageable creative projects on the side. When I am more settled and find collaborators I'll be ready to do something bigger, and when the faith is restored in the US economy I will q<</body>

[KateClugston]

I'm here for love. And bonus, he wants to be my benefactor, however it's not quite working out that way for now, but later the idea is that I'll switch to part time work so I can be an artist. So add that one to the list- "find a partner who makes decent money and wants support you financially to see you grow as an artist and live your dream."

Yes, also add the "move to a country which appreciates artists" This could be in dollars (for example the French artists dole where professional artists get paid by a wage by the government when they are in the off season or in development for their next work) or it could be related to accessability of resources and space- hello Berlin!

The walrus metaphor is inspiring as speaks of the artist as one who is nourished by their work and when artists begin pumping out creative product on demand, on brief for little money (in the vein of the freelance writing website you mention) the commodification of the work compromises its return to the creator. Not to say you should always have a 'spirited' return on your work, but oftne creating work generate fuels, contributes to 'growth' and the absence of these return changes the creative process and reduces motivation.

On the idea of the walrus' ability to make the most of what its got- ie those massive teeth- your totally right each artist naturally finds their "teeth" to survive. We learn to exploit what ever skills and resources we've got to make things work out. This kind of resourcefulness, ability to deal with instability and readiness to accept compromise are all common characteristics for artists to have, and ones which employers often find attractive. And funnily enough I think the attitude of an artist who has had to fight is rarely tainted with regret, bitterness or scars from the struggle, instead you will often find they are tenacious, passionate and philosophical about the state of their life energised by their creations and posessing a vibe which many 9-5ers envy.

[Peter Lloyd]

The next time I publish a version of "Walrus Teeth" I'll consider re-naming it "Finding Your Teeth" or "Using Your Walrus Teeth."

Scars are good, but no need to seek them, right? Irrepressible human creativity peeked through the cracks in Germany's concentration camps, but I wouldn't use the Nazi's as creative facilitators. Yet some seem to believe artists have to suffer... well, they do, but some think they have to make sure they do.

I connected the original post to this discussion, so some readers will find your "find a partner who makes decent money and wants support you financially to see you grow as an artist and live your dream" addition. Thank you for that.

As to writing for love, I wrote a song for a friend today. I must wait to explain later but it had to be done today. So I just sat down and did it. Songs have come as suddenly before but never because of a deadline. Don't know what to make of this.

KateClugston said:

I'm here for love. And bonus, he wants to be my benefactor, however it's not quite working out that way for now, but later the idea is that I'll switch to part time work so I can be an artist. So add that one to the list- "find a partner who makes decent money and wants support you financially to see you grow as an artist and live your dream."

Yes, also add the "move to a country which appreciates artists" This could be in dollars (for example the French artists dole where professional artists get paid by a wage by the government when they are in the off season or in development for their next work) or it could be related to accessability of resources and space- hello Berlin!

The walrus metaphor is inspiring as speaks of the artist as one who is nourished by their work and when artists begin pumping out creative product on demand, on brief for little money (in the vein of the freelance writing website you mention) the commodification of the work compromises its return to the creator. Not to say you should always have a 'spirited' return on your work, but oftne creating work generate fuels, contributes to 'growth' and the absence of these return changes the creative process and reduces motivation.

On the idea of the walrus' ability to make the most of what its got- ie those massive teeth- your totally right each artist naturally finds their "teeth" to survive. We learn to exploit what ever skills and resources we've got to make things work out. This kind of resourcefulness, ability to deal with instability and readiness to accept compromise are all common characteristics for artists to have, and ones which employers often find attractive. And funnily enough I think the attitude of an artist who has had to fight is rarely tainted with regret, bitterness or scars from the struggle, instead you will often find they are tenacious, passionate and philosophical about the state of their life energised by their creations and posessing a vibe which many 9-5ers envy.