You are not a Real Artist unless you are a Full-Time Artist.
Have you heard this? Maybe you’ve actually said it and meant it?
Over the years I have be subjected to a number of rules that other people expected me to live by.
When I lived by unquestioned rules that did not serve me I have been injured.
So let’s have a good long look at this rule, “You are not a Real Artist unless you are a Full-Time Artist.”
The truth is that the only reason that I am a “full-time Artist” is for two reasons:
- I’m unemployable. I haven’t updated my resume in about 15 years.
- I don’t like following rules just for the sake of it. And when you work for someone else you have to follow their rules.
Before I was a “full-time” Artist I was a “part-time” Artist.
When I quit my job and moved to San Francisco to be a “full-time” Artist, I had invested several years as a “part-time” Artist.
By the way, I don’t recommend doing what I did.
Why? There are smarter and less pressured ways to become a full-time Artist.
My art definitely changed and evolved when I became a “full-time” Artist because I had more time to make it.
But I was the same person, the same artist. I did not become a more real person or a more real artist.
I’m bringing this up because there are many artists who I’ve worked with who happen to have a day job and they don’t hate it. Thankfully.
These Artists also enjoy the stability of receiving a consistent paycheck. Amen. What’s the shame in that?
Artists Who THRIVE is all about making art and making money while thriving.
How much time should you devote to making art and making money? That’s entirely up to you. There is no mandate.
“You are not a Real Artist unless you are a Full-Time Artist.”
Really? Says who? And on what authority?
Where is this ruling coming from?
I’ll tell you where this rule, or judgment, is coming from.
It’s coming from other artists who are struggling financially and justifying their choices by asserting this myth.
Are the “full-time” artists who receive financial subsidies from their family or partners “real Artists?”
Look. If you really believe this rule, that’s cool. But don’t be smug and arrogant by imposing it upon other artists. Live and let live. “Do you.”
I know many talented Artists who also fulfill other roles that are important to them, which makes their pursuit of making art and making money, part-time.
So if this rule does not serve you, and you’ve been living by it, consciously or unconsciously, give it a rest.
The point is to pursue a healthy and happy balance that works for you. Living by other people’s standards will always lead to disappointment.
Is there a committee that christens Artists? I don’t thinks so; art is in the eye of the beholder.
If there is a committee, it’s not other artists. It’s our collectors.
How has this rule unnecessarily pressured you or eroded your confidence? I want to know.
Did you enjoy this article?
Just so that you know… I became a “full-time” artist when I was 40 😉
Thank you Ann! I’ve been stalking your site for a while now waiting for the “right” time to work with you. It’s comin’. I feel it in my bones.
I really appreciate this post because I have been supporting myself as private practice massage therapist for 15 years now and working on getting my BFA for the last 10 years(longterm plan:) and attempting to spend as much time in my studio as possible. I’ve been beating myself up a bit for not being a full-time artist yet at 44, but I feel I can relax that harshness a bit more with the help of this post and relax into my life as it is and its process of becoming. Maybe even appreciate myself and all I have done:) Thank you.
I have been living under this delusion for awhile now; it seems that most of the “how to make a living as an artist” blog posts and self-help sites assume that one has to work at it full-time to make money. I’ve come to the conclusion recently that I am a part-time artist; not because I have to make a living doing something else (which I do right now) or because I really like my other job (which I do), but because I can’t stand to do the same thing all the time. I crave the balance between my steady, part-time, money making meeting people and writing reports job and my wild, color-loving just-by-myself painting job. It keeps me whole. And I don’t just want to make art to make money with it; I have something special and I want to share it with the world. In order to keep doing that, my art has to pay for itself.
My pleasure! My aim is to destroy destructiveness 😉
Thank you so much for consistently giving us such supportive, encouraging thoughts, Ann. I can’t say how helpful your thoughts on this topic, of the fallacy of only being a real artist if you do it full-time, is. I’ve heard that many times, as I have my day job, and it can be destructive to my confidence. I now only surround myself with positive, supportive people and don’t discuss my artistic path with those who aren’t. Your encouraging and no-nonsense posts are really helpful. Thank you for doing what you do! I look forward to this every week! Best!
Yes. That’s the point! It’s nonsense that is unnecessarily undermining too many artists’ confidence.
So Einstein wasn’t a real physicist while working on relativity and at the patent office.
How many hours must one declare working as an artist in order to qualify?
Nonsense!
Yes. I’ve heard this. But you can’t become a full-time artist until you are selling enough work. It’s an impossible loop.
There is a fairly popular art newsletter and blog that offers marketing advice to artists. It heavily promotes the gallery route for artists, probably because they have a gallery. They are also artists One of their criteria for artist coaching/help from them is that they will “only work with full-time artists” because, paraphrasing their words, full-time artists are the ones who “show they are committed to their art.” Go figure.
There is also a lot of the same rhetoric about this topic in online artists forums.
Amen!
I tend to brush it off any time anyone says I’m not a “real” anything.
It’s not like I’m walking around telling people I’m a doctor!
That’s what I’m sayin’!
Seriously? I try to live my life artfully everyday – that doesn’t mean I can afford to support myself that way. How ridiculous to say one is only a true artist if they support themselves with it. Only the privileged few have that option.
I’d say art marketing gurus have pushed the use of ‘part-time’ and ‘full-time’ artist as a description. Think of the number of art marketing books about how to become a ‘full-time’ artist. I’ve seen a few from the 1980s. Granted, artists have long received jabs (mostly from fellow artists) for having a ‘day job’ outside of art… but most of this rhetoric is found in the pages of art marketing books. I say an artist is an artist. Period.