What is your picture of life as an artist?

Carefree, Fun, Exciting – or is it really?  Most artists like myself have to rely on a separate income to make a life.  Very few artists make a living just by creating their art.  This goes for photographers or painters and everything creative in between.  Luckily a lot of us make a living in a creative field.  As for myself, I’m a Web Designer trying to make a living.  Most of the time when the workday is done for everyone else, that is the time I spend in the Studio.  So it is much like having two jobs – except I don’t think of my time in the Studio painting as a “job”.

Recently, I’ve been laid-off which has been the case for a lot of Americans.  Unfortunately the state I live in, New Jersey, has a current unemployment rate of 9%.  Just 4 months ago it was 9.5% which means 1 in 10 people are looking for a job!

Now you would think this would give me time in the Studio to do what I love!  But instead, all I can do is worry about not having an income and looking for that elusive job!  I’m used to not working in the Studio until the evenings and now it is more like about 2pm before I get into the studio – sometimes!

So besides looking for work, which is a huge chore in and of itself, I also am trying to promote my work as an artist.  There is a lot of marketing to do and things have changed so fast with technology (more on that later) that the more that is ‘invented’ the more there is to do!  Expecially when it comes to Social Media.  I thought technology was to make our lives easier! As an Artist, you have to be a writer, marketer, programmer, designer, business manager and promoter … and then find time to paint or do what you love as an artist!

So Life as an Artist is more than you think.  Now if only I could just stay in the Studio and paint, but that is not the reality unless I become famous somehow and have someone do all the other stuff for me!

Any takers?