a new plan
Don't be sad Steven, it's not going to get easier, but maybe it can get better.
I'm sick of this constant work/fear cycle also. I have the dream blue colar job that makes a enough and I only have to work two days a week, "New York City bartender with 5 years club experience", so I theoretically have a lot of time to make art, but it's still a constant compromise that I have to justify. I don't make "small women's works on paper" and am a little insulted by the idea. I want to make huge installations using multiple mediums that I have to buy, work in a studio that's larger then 4'x5', go to the darkroom, buy a computer, use a scanner. All that costs more money then I can make in two days, and how long can I do these jobs. five years? ten years? and then what? I apply for grants, but so do hundreds of others.
We need to bring back the patron system. 9-5ers should cash in their shares of disney and sony and invest in us, start buying art and sponsering shows and offering grants. Old artists who have succeeded should share their successes to keep the cycle of good and interesting art alive. All they are offering is unpaid internships, when they should be offering free lessons and studio space.
here is my proposal,
1)write a letter to the well paid artist of your choice, explaining why you chose them, how much you need and what you'd do with the money.
2) start a non profit that runs like a school. remember art school when you had all the facilities you needed at your fingertips? Painting studios darkroom, welding shops, plastic shops, video editing equipment, a recording studio? whatever you needed. then we paid $35,000 a year to sustain not only these facilites but also teachers salleries and administration fees etc.. what if all that was needed was an anual fee to sustain the cost of reelestate and maintain the equipment. hundreds of people could be members generating hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's something to think about. sigh.
