This is the main question I ask myself every day: How can I survive as an artist?
It is tough but possible. First of all, you have to be sure about who you are and what you want to do in life, or better yet, how life can be used for your own purpose. I am not talking about how much money you will make or how famous you will become one day. I am talking about something else, a force inside you that drives you, that pushes you continuously to go forward and create, sometimes without any reason, sometimes with a reason.
I've thought a lot about this and struggled to find an answer that could satisfy me.
Why was I born like this? What is the purpose of my life? What do I enjoy most doing? What does my art give to me? Does it make me happy? Does it make other people happy? What do I give to others?
So let's talk about the larger purpose, not only in being an artist and surviving as one, but also in using your special creative gifts to benefit others and increase the greater good. That's what it's really all about.
Artists possess unique talents and abilities to express emotions, arouse feelings, explore sensitive issues, and make powerful statements with their art.
Through your art, you have the ability not only to beautify and enhance people's lives, surroundings, and environments, but also to bring them together, to incite dialogue, and to produce work that acts as a bridge between individuals. It paves the way for us to communicate with one another, to open up and share our experiences.
Sure, your art is about you; it represents who you are; it affirms your existence. But at the same time, it's also about relationships and promoting a sense of unity and understanding among us all.
Think of your art as a conversation starter, a means of reaching out to other people and affecting their lives, of offering your own unique perspective, and of helping others see things in new and different ways.
Art breaks down barriers.
It brings people together.
It gives us permission to reach out to one another and makes reaching out easier. Art sometimes even allows us to confront or broach difficult or sensitive subjects with total strangers because it's there to break the ice first.
That's what surviving as an artist is really all about—making a difference, a contribution that benefits everyone.
Being a successful artist is not only about showing and selling and becoming known; it's about understanding your purpose, your calling, and presenting yourself and your work with unwavering confidence and conviction about who you are and what your art stands for.
Having a firm grasp of why you're in this and what compels you to make art is key. Combined with a genuine willingness to experiment with new styles, subject matters, and techniques, to continually evolve and advance in your practice, and to reach out to others in ever more creative ways—that is what it means to not only survive but also thrive and prosper as an artist.
Impacting someone else's life with your art in a meaningful way, and not only might you make yourself a sale, but you will also endow the world with just a little tiny bit more good. That is what drives me.
"I think the primary goal of my pictures is to challenge and inspire myself and to expand my own knowledge of myself and my subconscious mind. At the same time, I am always hopeful that the pictures will have a transforming effect on other people in a positive way.
That they become more in touch with themselves and they can find places within their minds that they have never visited before. A scary process but challenging and exhilarating.
by Loredana Denicola
