Are You a Starving Artist ?

Posted on July 5, 2007 by Eric Hebert
Filed Under Life |

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The definition of a starving artist (from our always correct friends at Wikipedia) is one who sacrifices “material well-being” to focus on their artwork, in the hopes that their sacrifice will bring them success in the future.

What does this mean? It means that, if you are a painter, a writer, or a musician, then you go without some of the material things like cars and big televisions and nice furniture and instead spend your money on the things you need to continue creating art. Things like paint and guitar strings.

I know what it means to be a starving artist, and in my case, my business is my art. I spend my money on the things that keep my projects up and running everyday. Things like web hosting, high-speed internet access, and beer.

But there is another kind of “material well-being” that most artists do not think about. It is their addiction to their own.

I find that many artists are attached to their artwork a little too much. I know of great painters who no one will ever see because they don’t understand the web. They won’t just put images of their work and get it out there. They just paint away, hoping somehow that magically one day someone will see their work and they’ll become recognized.

The same goes for a musicians. Any who aren’t web savvy are still doing things the old way, dropping thousands to record an album and have CDs pressed. Then they try to get their music out by hawing their albums in the shopping mall parking lots. They blew their money on the CDs and never have enough for any real promotion.

The point here is to loose the “material”; you know, the physical notion of your work. If you are a painter, take pictures of your work, get ‘em online, and let people see it. Sell the visual to people, and then someday you can sell the actual painting. Or you can license the image, sell prints, etc. Forget about the physical painting and make it something more than that.

If you’re a musician, forget the CD. Just forget about it. Yeah, you’ll want to have that slick production, but you don’t need the albums. Get online, give some of it away, and sell the rest on iTunes. Sacrifice the physical notions of what an album is, and you’ll have a better chance of achieving some success later on.

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• Learn How To Promote Your Passion Online

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