A reason we are “Starving” Artists
5 minute read
A black & white photo of a life-sized plastic model skeleton, wearing a black apron with the words "STARVING ARTIST" written on it. Photo Credit: Mine
The "starving artist" trope is so popular because… well, we typically don't like to ask for help.
Whether we call ourselves “artists” yet or not, we can build our technical skills all day long and get great at making our art. And we can do that for ourselves for a long time and have it be enough and plenty.
But eventually, the artwork will start piling up. At some point we've got to share it, put it out into the world, complete the cycle of creativity (so we may inspire others) and for that we have to give the best of it a voice. Contrary to what we might believe, most visual art does not, and will not, speak for itself.
Nobody in a million years is just going to magically show up at your door and simply demand to look at and buy up all your work—even just stopping by someone's place unannounced these days feels intrusive and impolite. But that's the kind of lucky windfall we seem to expect will somehow happen? No.
The artist must speak for their work and speak up, and speak up again, and again. Artists must write and talk about themselves and about their work, and their services, like any other industry. They must make their art available to purchase, write the grant proposals and the website copy and social media posts and the emails. Your customers want to know who you are, exactly what's for sale and how much it is, how to buy it, and when and where any events are happening well in advance. They also really want to know who the human is behind the work and the relatable threads of connection that run through the work. And, well... people also need to see/hear something several times before they take action.
We don't like to self-promote.
We don't make our work available.
We undersell ourselves and don't price our work fairly.
We self-isolate and self-sabotage and remain stubbornly independent, to our own detriment.
We act this way and it keep us stuck, keeps us “starving”—and not just for food, not in the sense of martyrdom because we are buying art supplies instead of groceries—but they also keep us starving as in, we’re hungry for change, for success, for validation. We have a deep human need to be seen and understood through our art.
Confession: as a creative myself I can sometimes be just as guilty of this as any of us are, even when I know better.
Because… it’s pretty normal to feel this way, and there’s nothing wrong with you if you do.
But, I do know (at least partly) why we don't ask for help or share our story.
We don't like to ask for help because we have been taught that art should exist for its own sake, not for commercial profit.
We’ve been taught that art should be a hobby, or a sacrifice— and if we choose to make art we can expect to be angsty and broke.
We learn not to talk about money, or that asking for help is like begging, even when we need it, and it is shameful to beg.
We've also been conditioned that talking or writing about ourselves could be viewed as self-centred or selfish, and nobody wants to be viewed like that.
(Especially those of us who were raised identifying as girls & women, we have been conditioned to stay small and not put ourselves or our needs first, not take up too much space. Ugh, the patriarchy, to which we are too often complicit.)
We've been conditioned to think that advertising is at best mildly annoying, and at worst people will think we're being smarmy, trying to con them out of their hard-earned cash.
Well... is that true? That's only something to worry about if you're actually conning them (and consider, why the hell would you be doing that?). If you're providing actual value in exchange for a service or product your customers actually want, and you're leading with that value you're offering, not manipulation, then it's all above board, it's all just business. (This last piece is something I picked from Kelly Diels. She is very wise.)
These are all some pretty deeply held beliefs… but are any of them true?
Knowing they are not true at all, we can begin to get out of our own way.
(It also helps to first believe, or rather *know* our work is valuable. Impostor syndrome is a whole other topic sometime.)
Putting ourselves out there and sharing our work is hard, and vulnerable, and scary. Staying small feels safer and more predictable, but it is at the expense of growth and success.
But we can be brave and speak up.
We can take our work to market.
We have to keep putting our work out there, even when times are hard. Especially when times are hard.
No one is going to do it for us.
We can ask our trusted community, the people in our circles, friends and family, colleagues, ask them to take a look at our work, let them know what services we have to offer and what's for sale.
It turns out people find the bravery of sharing your work compelling and inspiring, and it paves the way for them to do it too.
And our circles DO want to support us, see us succeed, buy our work, maybe even live vicariously and become a patron of the arts. Even if I don't *always* follow it, a personal motto of mine is: "If you don't ask, the answer is no." This makes it easier when I need to ask for something.
The worst thing that will happen if you ask is not much worse than it is already. Maybe you hear a no, or you don't get much of a response, but that's okay, you were brave and took the chance.
