Here you go, fellow artists and creative types – read this post by Molly Crabapple.
Read it? Good. It’s to-the-point. More important, it’s brilliant.
This part in particular should ring loud and clear:
But most of all: if you want to be an artist for a living, you can’t half-ass it. You have to want it more than anything, and be willing to sacrifice sleep, social life, crappy high-school boyfriends, after-work drinks, and pretty much every other trapping of a fun, chill, early twenties experiance.
If you don’t want to do this, being a full time artist isn’t for you. There’s no shame in this. Drawing for fun, because you love it, is a beautiful thing. But if you know that there’s nothing else that you can do but make art all day, that it’s what you were born for, you’re going to need to make sacrifices.
Re-read that. And don’t get it twisted. This is not permission for a moaning complaint fest about how much you have to sacrifice and how no one gets it and/or you or your art. I see a lot of peers in the creative arts whine nonstop about shit that- for the most part- is totally out of the realm of creation. “No one is at my show” “I can’t make money because people download music for free” “No one will invest in me” “I just need a lucky break” “I need to network” “My breath stank”
None of these have to do with creation (well, yeah brush your teeth maybe so you don’t melt your art inadvertently). They have to do with ego and a sense of affirmation. They are all solvable problems and many resources await to help you solve them, you just have to do the research.
My fellow musicians and creative types, admit this: we tend to whine a lot about how other people should like us and our art and pay attention to it. How ‘if only more people knew about me, everything would be great’. Then we tend to tear down the success stories because we’re not them and we should be and they’re just lucky and untalented and no one gets us and they don’t know what they’re missing and let me just go network with people and post on twitter and facebook because really talking about art is more important than making it.
I learned very early on to stick to this truth in my life: Generally, if you’re doing something important with your life, not a single fuck will be given about it by anyone. Some people will pay you the appropriate social lip service, some people will deride you, some people may even support you. This is all completely ok and expected.
My background and my upbringing lent no support system for being a musician. I do this because it’s a calling. I do this because it’s what I do and I feel ‘right’ when I do it. These are not explanations you can expect anyone to truly understand, so don’t expect people to understand them (trust me, you’ll be happier without expectations on this) and just go and do your thing.
So go home, to your studio, to your mind – wherever the fuck it is you create (your true home) – and resolve to stay there more than anywhere else you can possibly be in your life. Ignore everybody who infringes upon you doing so whether they’re questioning, doubting or complaining- they’re average. Prove to your self you’re not and others will start to take notice. I know a lot of well networked people. These are good people to know, not necessarily good people to be. The people who truly support you will stay by you. The ones who don’t will go away. Let them decide.
If you pursue creation with passion and diligence, you do so because it’s the right thing for you to do. There’s no other reason.
I can keep typing (and will at another date), but honestly – nothing says it much better than Waylon Jennings does in this song:
