Doing What You Love

Featured image: I'm Late, I'm Late

Master Chefs do what they love, and they don’t work for free.

Gardeners do what they love, but they do not do it for free.

Why is it that artists are expected not to place a monetary value on their work?

Could it be that our culture does not value the creative, authentic, rugged individual who is a free thinker?

Art is work. "Want-to-be" artists do not think of what they do as work. They are still stuck in the old romantic paradigm of a creative empty space where art just emerges – oozed from them. They want others to think that they are special because they are gifted and can create. I know I used to think that. But, really, I am just like every other working tradesperson. Does that mean I think of myself as a techne? No, I work at being an authentic artist. And like any other tradesperson I expect to be paid not just in the form of self-empowerment, self and identity and self-definition. While praise, opportunity and exposure are all wonderful for an artist, praise, opportunity, and exposure do not put paint on my brush.

Artists need to be valued.Their intellectual property needs to be valued. And, once this value becomes real then, that empowers the artist to be authentic.