artists and the stigma works on artists
as a result of that because the stigma
of being starving artists and not being
able to make it on your own stems from
that phrase this is my early beginnings
as the team you baby and as you can tell
I’ve probably come farther than that and
I as a young child as a little baby was
not afraid of becoming a starving artist
I was told that if I pursue being a
professional artist and just doing that
full-time without anything else that I
would starve but that didn’t scare me
and so I chose to pursue art but other
people do not some people are convinced
that they won’t be enough they won’t be
able to make it and they lose confidence
within themselves and they become
alienated by the phrase starving artists
they’re afraid to truly invest in their
skills and develop their craft and
become a full-time artist because
they’re told that they can’t do it and
as you can see by my graph artists are
not the only people starving according
to this graph unemployment is up all
over if you’re trying to enter any
industry there’s going to be problems
with getting in where you fit in and
getting a stable job and the poverty
line is why I these days
you can work at McDonald’s and still be
as you can see I got better I had
support from my family and that is why I
was able to continue and move on and
invest in my skills I was encouraged by
my art teachers and both of my parents
and other members of my family to
continue to invest in my art and I was
told that I was doing great and so on
and so forth earlier this year obviously
I got way better but um not everyone is
as lucky as me to have so much support
take my grandmother for instance she is
an artist and she makes the most
beautiful dresses you can imagine but as
a young girl she was told that she
shouldn’t invest in that skill of hers
so she took a job as an accountant
instead and yeah she’s a realtor
accountant and she’s working in Realty
now but you would not even imagine how
different everything would be if my
grandmother invested in being a
seamstress and dressmaking because she’s
amazing bragging but my mother on the
other hand didn’t listen when my
grandmother told her the same thing that
she shouldn’t invest in her skill
because she wouldn’t be able to make it
and she would be a starving artist she
didn’t listen and she pursued that
anyways and she became a fashion
designer and she’s very successful she’s
a major asset to the company that she
works for
she’s never been unemployed for more
than like three weeks and she inspires
me all the time to pursue my art because
I know that I could make it if I tried
very hard and invest in myself however
even if you try very hard and you invest
in yourself there’s still a chance that
you might fail
unfortunately because I know this
because my father is an artist as well
but because of things not working out
and you know life just getting in the
way he ended up leaving his job at Mad
Magazine as an illustrator and becoming
a handyman at a spa company um then he
went from being a handyman to a taxi
driver and now he works as a teacher in
a school for at-risk youth and at night
he works as a bouncer my father is very
skilled as an artist and he even still
publishes his artwork and he works on
the side as an artist
but he is not able to get a full-time
job
as just an artist because he has too
many things to juggle now but had he
stuck with it he would have been able to
the moral of this story is support we
need to support our young artists
because the world is missing out on all
of the artists and potential artists and
the people who chose not to pursue that
field even though they’re very gifted
and talented we need to support the arts
and we need to retire the phrase starving artist