There’s a common expression that’s been thrown around, “The struggle is real.” Amongst artists, I’d say this is more truth than fiction. Having spent a month in Seville, Spain, and having spoken with a few artists there, the general impression I got was that much like in the US, artists work hard. Their hours vary greatly from day to day and week to week. Some artists felt that society didn’t appreciate art, while others felt that people only wanted realist art. I could go on, but the gist of their views of the art world was lukewarm to cool. The funniest part of my conversations was the opinions I got from them about the US art market. They believed that their art careers would be better in the US. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised, though I was hoping for a better outcome. Whether you’re in the US or in another part of the country, we as artists are going to run into the same problem. Balancing life and work and making a living from it.
Most of us artists are not salespeople; we primarily concern ourselves with the production and cross our fingers when it comes to selling. Truth be told, I’m partly that way as well. I heard a sage piece of advice about what you can try to sell and what you shouldn’t. “Would you want to look at that piece of art for the next 10 years on a wall?” It struck me because I don’t think of my work in that way. I usually have something I want to say, and then I find a composition that best delivers my vision.
That’s what most people would call artistic statements. The general public expects that kind of art from artists. But the general public rarely buys that art. Sure, they’ll go look at it in a museum or at a show. But buying it, that’s a different kind of patron. The world needs both the artist that’s the decorator, and the artist that’s the philosopher. Some artists are good at one of those things, and some are good at both. I don’t believe you should get too bent on being an all-in-one kind of artist. You should make the kind of work that makes you happy and are willing to put out there.
I came to Spain in the hopes that being in a country with hundreds of years of art tucked into every corner of its being, that I would have different kinds of career opportunities that I didn’t have in the US. I’d hoped that I would find that relaxed balance of life and work everyone talks about. What I discovered was that it’s no different from the US. I suspect now that it’s really no different in any part of the world. Wherever you are in the world, artists are all struggling to get by with their art. Whether you’re successful or not depends entirely on whether you’re resourceful enough to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you.
The questions you have to ask yourself are: What do you want from life? How much is it worth to you? What are you willing to do for it? What are you willing to sacrifice for it? The struggle is real, but how much you struggle is entirely up to you.
