Artist's time for a change

Not so long time ago women had to fight their way to have the same rights as men have.

Although we seem to be more tolerant these days toward others, there are still undermined groups.

There is a connotation that an artist is poor and sits on the lowest part of society.

Just tell your parents that you want to become an artist and you will create a great distress in the family. You may hear:

"Choose the profession that will bring you money. Art equals poverty."

Surely, there are programs that help the situation, allowing creators to present their work to the world, but counting the numbers of hours they spend working, they barely make money.

There is another connotation with the word: artist, meaning someone lazy, not realistic, and unable to sustain himself, being mostly parasite to the community.

"Nobody wants your artwork. Get yourself a normal job, settle down. Nobody cares what you do unless you bring money home. No money means no respect and no voice in society." Some artists hear these statements.

As young people, artists have the passion and desire that pushes them through and make them believe all is possible. However later on they see how few of them can really fulfill their dreams. It is so much different in other professions where if not famous, the person still survives. For artists however the pressure of being the best is enormous, because they know if they won't be the greatest, they won't make money to even go on from month to month. Additionally, some artists have to practice every day the skills while in most of the professions, it is not required.

The price of being an artist is high. Instead of income, they rather lose: own sanity and health, compromising themselves doing other jobs. They have to choose between sort of fulfillment of working as an artist and have no money or do something else, they usually don't have skills for, therefore suffer too.

The change of that situation must start among artists, within themselves. Who will care if they won't?

HOW?

* By creating a community where artists can grow, exchange, support each other and change their attitude to find a link to the others, to be heard and acknowledged.

* Gaining more awareness about own limits, compromises, abilities, skills, therefore asking yourself such questions as how much do I want to work for free? What is my minimum rate and below that I won't work? Whom my service can help? What do I want to bring into this world? What do I want to share? What is most important for me? Why?

* Starting programs already in high school where everybody can get a coach, psychologist to help with self-awareness and direction of life. The decision teenagers make that time and in college is crucial for their further life.

Life is too short to live somebody else's way, overwork to live later when we won't probably have energy, health to do things we can do only NOW.

It's easy to say: value yourself and don't offer your artwork for free. However, it takes a teamwork to be able to change.

You are welcome to share your thoughts and add suggestions.

“A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.”

― Robert McKee

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

The text is based on my personal experience as a coach and artist myself, observation and conversations with others. If this is somehow meaningful to you, let me know about it.