well, fuck that!!!

[moonvoice]

In this world, at this time, you can - if you have been genetically gifted - wear scraps of fabric artfully on your body for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you can learn how to walk right, be a good spokesperson, and find yourself on one of the Next Top Models, you could maybe make more.

In this world, if you are willing to drive a big truck on a mine in Western Australia, you can make $100k plus as your starting wage. If you are a cleaner on a mine, you make around $70k. An engineer? Well... let's not tease.

In this world, if you want to work retail in Perth as a casual, you make around $18.00 an hour. If you want to work at a television station cutting advertisements together, you are lucky to make $12.00 an hour.

In this world, if you work 7 days a week, bleeding your soul out onto paper and canvas, sharing your visions with others in this world... you are lucky to scrape enough money to pay the bills, and for the most part cannot afford such a career without a supportive partner.

In this world, if you want to be a fiction writer... don't quit your day job, or make sure that someone loves you enough to support you through the rejection letters, as you realise that it is becoming harder and harder to publish with the big companies, which is one of the only chances you may get to become self-sufficient if you're not willing to sell out and spend 40 hours a week editing other people's work just to make enough money to spend a handful of hours writing your passion.

There are exceptions to all of these rules. I plan to be an exception to the art one.

But when I am being encouraged to go and clean in the mines, I become extraordinarily indignant.
It is not my fault that the general attitude of the capitalistic world is to devalue it's writers, artists, film-makers, and god forbid if you want to be a professional poet.
Gone are the days when you will be as celebratedly famous as the bitter Byron.

ART is my calling. I happen to be SKILLED at it. The only reason I am not making more
money from it, is because a great bulk of our society values supermodels and truck-drivers more.

No, I will NOT become a graphic designer, no, I will NOT teach art instead.
I am a competent artist, I am a professional artist, yes I'm constantly broke. I haven't been able to afford some of my own medical bills for some time now.

But I'm not going to succumb to the will of capitalism just because I'm scared of not becoming an exception to the 'poor artist' rule. I don't plan on being a poor artist, and like a couple of others on my Friendslist who know how hard it is, they don't plan on it either. But the fact is - we ARE at this stage of networking, making contacts, supporting each other, and working harder than many other people we know until our hands hurt and shake, until our eyes blur, until we hate our own passion, our own skill, our own products and need to just walk away and take a deep breath and go right back to it.

In any other non-artistic career, if you put this much work into an endeavour, you would be making a great deal more money. Fuck, if you were a cleaner - at this point - you would be making more money.

I find this unfair, but moreso I find this a sad representation of how much the greater world has lost sight of its artists and creators. How much you are valued if you can blow up the ground, vs. how much you are valued if you can inspire someone or move them with something visionary.

I am commercialising to a degree, I am finding that road of compromise, but I will not stand down and become a cleaner just because I'll make more money. If I don't sacrifice this dream for dishpan hands, I believe I will make enough money to one day be financially independent, sufficient, comfortable.

But fuck I have my doubts,
when the wider world doesn't seem to care either way,
just wants another labourer to tear the iron ore out of the ground
just wants another person to spill bleach onto concrete
just wants another skeleton to show off the fabric.

Comments

[foxfeather.livejournal.com]

Art as a career is... insanely challenging. It is really too bad how much this society devalues art in general. The values most people have sincerely scare me. Not just with art, but with everything. So destructive.

I have a 'day job' to pay the bills. I have good friends who are commercial artists (not graphic designers/teachers, but they make their art to sell at shows/general venues) and they seem to be living hand to mouth most of the time. Even the more talented/popular ones. Though art is my calling, as well, I can't live my life that way. I hate to say it like this, but money is too important to me. In the sense I want to have land, I want to do animal rescue, I want to share a lot of things with a lot of people and I need money to do that. Not fancy cars, not a boat and a lakehouse, but the ability to travel and do what I love.
It's so hard. I wish you the best of luck on your path, and I have no doubt you will suceed if you put in the time and effort. It's just sad artists have to be fighting society for a scrap to eat, so to speak. : /

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Money is important to me too, and the only reason I'm still not working part-time in retail is because of my knee (the stupid one that still needs further surgery).

I'm hoping once my knee is better - if it ever gets better - I can go back into working full time.

I, like you, don't want to be living hand to mouth, and plan on even owning my own house one day. *sigh*

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

I have a day job (teaching) but I write in my spare time. I want to be a writer but Singapore is still slowly coming to its senses about writers and writing, and seeing it as a Good Thing.

Good luck on your path and please persevere.

[mycala.livejournal.com]

Good for you. For those who don't understand the value of the time and work and energy and thought and blood and sweat and tears that go into artwork -- and girl, you know yours is incredible, you have an extraordinary talent -- give 'em all the finger and tell 'em where they can go.

A true artist just keeps on creating because they have to. It's part of their genetic makeup. And you'll be an exception to the rule. Your work is incredible. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see you wind up world-famous. Hang in there.

[alphaviolet.livejournal.com]

I do know people who have decided to pursue their art independently, and have, after hard work, succeeded.

Personally, I find it troubling when I read that someone thinks that writers who work for organizations, rather than doing poetry or fiction on their own, are "selling out." I couldn't write fiction for eight hours a day; it's very hard work. Journalism is easier and more social, which I like.

However, I do support and admire people who go the independent route.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

As I have said in my post, I don't think it's selling out - it's *especially* not selling out if that person feels a calling as an editor like one of my friends does.

I *do* think it's selling out if someone knows they can write for full-time hours, but in order to survive has to find some other avenue.

Likewise, I don't think many people can do art 8 hours a day like I do (well more like 5 hours a day and then 3 of networking), but for those who can but can't survive off it, and so teach instead - finding at the end of the day that they no longer have as much time for art as they want...

I just think it's very very sad.

[alphaviolet.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that it's important to follow one's calling. It's much better doing something that's a good match with one's true interests.

It's interesting that your sales have been overseas. That happened to another artist I know. Almost all her sales were in Spain and Portugal.

naive impressions

[tsukikokoro.livejournal.com]

I'm not actually in this wide world of job opportunities and trying to make a living on my own wage, so I really can only comment with what seems to be the case. And that's really limited as well, since I have very little statistics or education on the matter unless I have a friend very impassioned about their career choice. That being said:

In America, I don't think being a janitor pays more than being a starving artist. In retail, in Virginia, you're lucky to break the $10 an hour mark and it's nearly impossible to break $15. (The only time I've seen an hourly wage rise above $15 was a 3-month $17 internship working for a marine corp museum.) Models; well my ideas on how much money they earned were completely shattered after a long discussion with some of my teachers. Before you hit super model (if you ever), it's a humiliating, exploitative experience with low pay - the model market is saturated, so getting a job is very hard.

Granted, artist seems to be the most difficult job, because the field is also terribly saturated. There are the caricature artists that earn a nice commission during fairs, festivals, parties, and on populated streets. Tattoo artists, if they have a good reputation and a nice portfolio, can usually find nice paying jobs and steady customers. Though I think the cash spot is getting museum commissions and auctioning your art to a well-endowed crowd (a great way to get out there is through charity auctions, it seems).

And while I do believe it depends on the type of fiction you're writing, the field has been rapidly becoming more and more of a profitable career. Certainly reading Ray Bradbury's essays lead me to believe that writing books was hardly the way to have an easy life - but recent authors (Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Dr. Phil, J.K. Rowling, Chuck Palahniuk, Augusten Burroughs, Phillip Pullman, K.A. Applegate, Tom Clancy, Stephen King, etc.) have been meeting with a lot of success. Why do I say this? I thought writing was hopeless due to lack of demand and difficulty with publishers, but my teachers and my father have emphasized how much the industry has changed and is changing...

So... I guess my point is that I'm under the impression that the skilless jobs that pay a lot are the ones that are dangerous, and that art and writing usually pay as much as retail or janitorial work, not less. And that such a statement might echo America. I certainly like your job security, rights and pay far more than America's legislation though.

I believe you have the skills to be an art exception and that you can earn a name for yourself, striking it rich. And... well, I admire you for having the dedication, determination, and gumption to follow through on making a career out of your joy.

Also, I have had pieces in mind to buy, but I'm waiting until I have money to spend before I give you an official email. :3 Do you have an ebay account to sell your pieces and commissions on? Ebay helped my alleviate some of my friend's college costs; she offered tarot readings. Since you can use PayPal and market to a wider audience (and also share links to your portfolio) AND it's relatively inexpensive to use ebay, maybe it will help business pick up. :)

Re: naive impressions

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I will reply to this in more detail later, but I'll say this - cleaners on the mines in Western Australia make a great deal more than cleaners in the city, and as for art... well I've been working on full-time art for 5 months, and I've made $700 Australian. Not much, I made more than that a fortnight selling pillows to people two days a week.

I have some prospective art things on the horizon, but some of them won't pay at all, because sometimes I'm doing work for authors and publishers who like me just don't have the disposable income. *sigh*

Also, what you say about America may have a great deal of truth in it since I wonder if Americans value art more - almost ALL of my sales, pretty much every single one of them, have gone over to Americans. Not people from the UK, and not even many fellow Australians. It's why I didn't get a website with a .com.au prefix, because there just aren't a great deal of Aussies who buy art. There is perhaps one Australian that immediately comes to mind who has commissioned me for two pieces, I'm not sure of any others.

Even my extinct thylacine picture - an extinct native Australian animal - is now living in the UK. No one in Australia (who saw it, mind you, my coverage wasn't very big back then) wanted it. A UK woman did.

So maybe it's as much the country too. *sigh*

Re: naive impressions

[tsukikokoro.livejournal.com]

I actually believe that your tassy animal pieces would sell for high prices here is Tasmania. ezelek's parents regularly attend art charity auctions, and the work that's purchased (for one thing, seems to lack imagination) is of good quality, but on par with your own pastel/detailed works. Tasmanian tigers are the state's mascot, and I have no doubt that some of the very wealthy attendees of these auctions would love to own your pieces.

"The Tasmanian devil was chosen as the symbol of the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service." If you had more illustrations of Tasmanian Devils (like the commission), there's a market trying to get out information on the critters and the cancerous mouth tumors plaguing the species. Quantas has created sculptures for charity auctions... I'm not sure I see an opportunity to get canvas art pieces paid for by a nice corporation looking for appealing objects to use for this effort, but it's just a thought.
http://www.utas.edu.au/foundation/devil.htm

Re: naive impressions

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

the cleaners at the mines only get $18 an hour but work 12 hour days... :P

Re: naive impressions

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I wrote this entry up in Myspace and edited to say it depended on the mine, a friend of mine works up at one of the big one (Rio Tinto, or similar I think) and while she works long hours, she is on $70k.

I knew managers at Toys R Us who worked 70+ hour weeks easily and their annual wage never went about $35k. It's all relative.

Re: naive impressions

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Toys R Us are evil, as are fast food chains! :P

But they have problems retaining staff these days! I wonder why... :P

Re: naive impressions

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

To be honest, TRU has always had problems retaining staff and I for one think they deserve it.

It just saddens me that some of the staff they are losing are going up North to help our society blow great holes into the ground, looking for fossil fuels, or better yet, the metals that will help them make the machines to look for more fossil fuels.

To my mind, that is no better than the capitalistic roller coaster of retail.

Toys R Us is definitely evil. *grin*

Re: naive impressions

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Me? I would like to make enough to not need handouts from my partner to afford two minute noodles.

[mirrorred-star.livejournal.com]

Its stupid how much money the people at the top can make, while its such a struggle at the bottom. Its so disheartening that the creative industries encourage conformity so much.

*hugs* The goal is too glorious to give up easily. I wish you best of luck.

[mirrorred-star.livejournal.com]

Damn, that sounded overly dramatic. I mean, you know what you want to be doing with your life, so I doubt you'll settle for anything less.

I want to do the writing thing but if I continue the way I am at the moment, it won't be going anywhere. :) I have trouble making myself sit down and do stuff.

[guilty2017]

A-fucking-men.

More power to you.

I can't really give you any advice on the art industry (if that isn't an oxymoron..) but .. I felt the same way trying to get a job in my field. I had all these people trying to pressure me into taking any job I could get, just for the money, but i held out, and now I'm making money doing what I love. No reason you can't do the same.

Stay true, don't compromise yourself. After all, what would you rather do, buy shiny things in some vague attempt to assuage the mind-numbing boredom of spending 40+ hours a week doing shit you hate for people you don't like, or live your own life the way you want to, and not feel the urge to fill the void with mindless bullshit?

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

what would you rather do, buy shiny things in some vague attempt to assuage the mind-numbing boredom of spending 40+ hours a week doing shit you hate for people you don't like, or live your own life the way you want to

You have an *awesome* way with words.

And you're right. :) Yay for rightness!

[guilty2017]

Perhaps I'm flattering myself, but I hope my words can inspire you to keep fighting. You deserve the life you want; you deserve a life you love.

[syrenichol.livejournal.com]

Nice rant. Did you mention the lives of musicians too?
At least I think it's implied with art.

One of my graphic design/fine arts as a career book basically challenges this by stating we don't have to live so poorly if we price things right. It frustrated the hell out of me to figure out the "right pricing" because as a graphic designer (through my job) we charge $55/hr. I'm on salary though so I don't see the direct income from that work. People then ask me why they have to pay that much. I don't even know what to tell them without bitching about it... and then adding to the world of insults by stating how as graphic designers we merely appropriate the long bust'n ass hours of other artists to make a functional communicative piece of junk (ephemera).

Anyhow, the point was really to charge for the hours you put in, but somehow keep it reasonable. Which implies that you have to learn to do these things quicker. And the hard part is being able to do what someone asks you/pays you for.

My father has/had a few arts friends... one's a poet and professor, another is a painter and his ex-wife a cello player in a symphony. The painter made $10,000 on one painting as I believe was requested by a restaurant in New York City. I'm not sure what the celloist made, but I can tell you they live in Manhattan... where most apartments are tiny and no less than $1,500 a month in rent alone.

I'm not great at economics, so I try not to dwell on how these factors came to be. Though I've always been aggravated with the imbalance of income. I'm not surprised that any job that aids the government is a high paying job or has great benefits. I am shocked, however, that waitresses make $3.50/hr and are meant to live on tips, which most people aren't willing to pay decently for their services. Not to mention most service positions, particularly those around food, have to work through most holidays, if not all of them just to serve people who don't plan ahead or want to have a nice time out.

It's no wonder a lot of people I've run into CHOOSE to be homeless. Why cope with a society that severely devalues certain careers, classes, etc.?

[morgandria.livejournal.com]

I've had a similar lament in the past. My skillset, that of spiritual work, artistic skill, crafting small items of beauty, would be much more valuable in a different society, in a different time. The one we're living in does not value it at all, even while it bemoans the loss of it. Be that as it may, artists of all kinds are the keepers of our society's spirit, its' soul, and without our creative expression to nurture it, it will die. Is there any doubt that the soul of our society is ailing, though? Not in my mind.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

The one we're living in does not value it at all, even while it bemoans the loss of it.

Ah, irony... an old friend.
That is so true. A society must be ill, if its creators are generally ostracised and missed at the same time. :/

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

I forget whether I asked you this, but what's the gallery situation like there? I know a number of artists I know here will do gallery shows as often as possible to appeal to a larger customer base. It's no0t that much better here in the U.S.--otherwise I wouldn't know so many *starving* artists.

Also, have you done much research into professional book illustration, as in ways to break into the industry? You have a very versatile style that would work for all sorts of genres.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yeah illustration for sure, there's only one decent independent publisher in Western Australia, so I'd need to be approaching international audiences but I'm okay with that since I sell mostly to the US anyway.

I was thinking about it, I've only been doing this full-time for about 4 months (since I left Baines), any turn over at all is pretty good considering that most small businesses run at a loss for the first 2 years. While I might have years of experience, it's only been 4 months that I've been looking more into the networking side of things.

I will look into illustration, I've heard mixed things about the ability to get decent paid work. The big publishers tend to have favourites, the small publishers sometimes can't afford to pay. So we'll see, I need to strike up a balance atm with paid work too.

[(Anonymous)]

*icon love*

Illustration can be tough, especially since there are a lot of unemployed illustrators out there. But you have unique work for sure. I do also suggest looking into local galleries, seeing if you can do a show of your work there--you could probably get away with nice matboard, as opposed to a full frame.

[thelittlestbear.livejournal.com]

Hear Hear babe.