— Is it realistic to try to “make it” as an artist? Or is that just a pipe dream, and not something that happens in the real world?
A student of mine recently told me her family was making her feel dumb for thinking she could succeed with her art. The way they put it, in the “real world” you went to college, you got a regular job. Presumably you then went on to work long hours so you could afford a house and a nice car and a big screen TV.
What I find amusing is that those who preach “get real” have no idea what “real” even means in today’s world.
For one, who says you need a big house and a new car in the first place? The days of trying to keep up with the Joneses and show off your new BMW are over. (Or should be.) I don’t know about you, but I’m WAY more impressed by someone who is doing something really cool with his life, building something exciting, living for something that matters. Who cares what they’re driving?
But even beyond that. What’s actually “real” today when it comes to building an artistic career? Here are a few things that are real:
* Social Media. Have you heard of this thing called the internet? It’s really something. You should look into it. Like never before in the history of mankind you can now come up with a creative idea during your morning walk … bring it to life by that afternoon … refine it, perfect it, and get it out in front of tens of thousands of people all over the world before sitting down to dinner. That’s utterly unprecedented. It’s insane. It’s absolutely breathtaking if you think about it for half a second. And that’s now our reality.
* Digital Artistry. The advent of the digital camera (and then of the absurdly impressive digital cameras on mobile phones) changed everything. It really did. What you are now able to accomplish with a digital camera is entirely unprecedented. And the speed with which you can take your images into Lightroom or Photoshop and turn them into stunning works of art is borderline miraculous. Never has it been easier to take a creative idea and bring it to life on the screen or on canvas. (Heck, no need to look any further than the pages of our magazine Living the Photo Artistic Life to witness the extraordinary scope and depth of what’s possible in the realm of digital artistry today.) Add in the wide spectrum of mixed-media, video, sophisticated typography … The opportunities today are dazzling.
* Global Marketplace. Back in the day (like … the 1990s?) if you wanted to make money as an artist, you were largely constrained by geography. Not only was it more difficult to create art, it was WAY harder to sell it or to market yourself as an artist. Nowadays? It’s a totally different game. For one, there are FAR more galleries available (they’re everywhere), and the internet has made it possible to put your work on display for the entire world to see. Our AWAKE portfolio site ArtBoja.com is a great example of this. And then add in all of the many ways an artist can now go about promoting himself, getting his work published online, building out a huge international following on Instagram, and on and on and on. Endless possibilities. And just as important — endless possibilities in terms of WHAT he sells and TO WHOM. Gone are the days when an artist needed to find an individual buyer for an individual work of art. You can now sell digital prints all over the world (and have professional print companies handle all of the work of printing, packing, and shipping them) — photographic prints, canvas prints, prints mounted to Plexiglass, prints on metal, prints on wood. And prints are only one side of it. Nowadays an artist can secure illustration assignments, can see her work purchased by companies for use in their marketing or packaging, can land gigs designing websites, can license content for use by other artists, by stock agencies, heck by hotel chains and software companies and advertising firms … The field is enormous, the demand for excellent creative work insatiable.
And the only limit is your ambition and your imagination.
Fact is, never before in the history of life on planet Earth has it been more promising for an artist to not only earn a few bucks here and there but actually build a full-time income through creative work.
So the next time someone tells you to put your artistic dreams aside and “join the real world,” I honestly hope you will just laugh in their face.
I mean that. These people don’t even know the real world.
So just shake your head and laugh.
Then walk away … and go get busy creating something extraordinary, something that will challenge and invigorate you, something that will spark your imagination and make life exhilarating. Or go grab your journal and sit down and start brainstorming ideas for exactly how you’re going to go about proving the naysayers wrong.
Artists simply don’t worry about “the real world.”
Indeed, Jason Fried (founder of 37Signals) put it so well when he wrote: “The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.”
Preach, brother.
That might be something worth printing out and hanging above your computer.
Want the real deal? Here’s the real deal:
If you’re serious about creating a career through your art, nothing can stop you. Of course, you don’t want to go about it naively, tinkering at it, just sort of hoping it all just comes together for you. But if you work at it, if you treat it with the respect it deserves, if you think, if you plan, if you work your ass off … You can build an amazing life as a working artist.
Not promising you a McMansion or a BMW in the driveway.
But you can almost certainly create a self-sustaining life for yourself as an artist, in love with what you do, living every day on your own terms, calling your own shots, and loving damn near every minute of it . . .
That you can have.
Maybe you’ll make a lot of money someday. Maybe you won’t. But that’s not your affair. The crazy successes you hear about now and then are often just as much about luck and timing as they are about talent.
You can’t control that.
What you can control is putting in the work. What you can control is spending time every day thinking through your next move, your next project, your next client, exhibition, book, campaign. What you can control is mastering your craft and working at it every single day to find your own voice. What you can control is getting off your butt and putting your work out into the world, taking chances, risking rejection … risking greatness.
It all starts with a decision: Are you going to listen to the “responsible” people in your life telling you that you’re living in a dream world? Are you going to listen to them, and give up?
Or are you going to get serious — and go prove them wrong?
– Sebastian
Closing Note: If you are currently a student in Photoshop Artistry Fine Art Grunge and interested in learning more about our advanced AWAKE group (and interested in fully “Living the Photo Artistic Life”), enrollment opens twice a year (January 1st and July 4th), and you can learn more about it by clicking here . . .