It’s Not Selling Out, It’s Buying Into the Hard Work
Tomorrow, Natalie and I are guest lecturing at WMU’s Art 1480 course. The teacher wanted us to not only share how our art is created, but how Natalie and I do what we do, aka make a living.
I love that question. How does an artist, writer, or musician make a living?
The way an artist makes a living usually follows the sex and cash theory, created by Hugh MacLeod. Meaning, there is the sexy work that we like to do (our art, our unique ideas, our memoirs…) and then there is the cash work, the work that pays the bills.
For example, Nat’s writing a column for the Bridge right now as we speak. Friday, she was doing a book talk for her memoir, Swedish Lessons. This weekend, I played a show of mostly originals; and today I’m prepping some holiday music for an upcoming. private party.
We wear many hats.
Some artists–ones who usually don’t do much art and spend their time complaining–might call this selling out. But it’s not.
Selling out is doing something that isn’t true to one’s heart, but there is nothing wrong with doing some work that pays (commercial work) to help fund the artistic work that might not be commercial appeal.
Danny Barnes, esteemed banjo player, says, “Don’t be afraid to do other things to make money in the short term.” (rest of blog on how to make a living as a musician is here)
We must work to fuel our art. It’s not selling out. It’s buying into the work.
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