Poke me in the other eye, please: Artists and poverty
Perhaps I’m in a personal info-wormhole but lately I’ve become aware of any number of articles, books and lectures explaining in gruesome detail just how unattractive being an artist is in terms of comparative job quality. The other day it was a summary on Rhizome (by John Powers and William Powhida) of a lecture Hans Abbing’ gave on artists and poverty. Abbing is the author of the book Why Are Artists Poor? Today Furtherfield tweets a link to a Guardian article (from 2010, admittedly) detailing artists’ day jobs.
(My fave day job, popular with Norwegian artists, isn’t listed: Work in a mental hospital or better yet wards for the criminally insane - they accept weird hours, respect the need for sudden breaks from work and they pay fairly well yet demand no actual education. Just be prepared for clients who defecate in public.)
Then there was the hilarious Huffington Post article “Study Reveals Artists Have High Salaries”, based on a clever survey by none other than the US National Endowment of the Arts. Said survey managed to prove that “artists” on average make more than the US median income - that is, if by “artist” you also mean architects, designers and art directors. You know, those well-paid kids down the block that you hope to maybe sell your work to someday.
While I applaud the efforts of W.A.G.E. and art blogs like Hyperallergic in their efforts to bring attention to the plight of the artist it seems a done deal and noone’s really that interested. I have attempted to break it down for people at cocktail parties at least twice and interest rapidly dwindled. Realizing that this is the case I can’t help but feel that I should embrace my dismal chances of ever owning real estate and stop telling people about it. Ignorance is the better part of bliss, no?
Maybe we should just not discuss how badly the few artists who don’t quit two years after art school are doing in terms of financial wealth and societal status symbols. After a while it’s just cruel. It’s not like we signed up to have people poking us in the eye with a stick on top of everything else.
Postscript: The paradox of being a digital artist is that while your chances in the art market are slim to none, at least your digital skill set is remarkable desirable in the real world. Compared to oil painters we really have nothing to complain about, except the occassional advertising client who wants to pay silly money in exchange for getting the work done yesterday.
Relevant links:
- art
- capitalism
- money
- poverty
