The Artist’s Passion or Money?

Living your life in pursuit of art as a career is no easy task; yet, it is a growing trend. As the internet becomes more accessible to the public and websites and applications such as Youtube, Tumblr, Vine, and Instagram (etc.) gain popularity, their is a lot of room for people to gain a following and potentially make a living posting full-time to these platforms. As citizens of a capitalist society, we live in a place where having a chance to be successful is all we want. Rather than all be given equal stakes in the country’s wealth, we are all given a chance (hopefully a somewhat equal chance) to make something of our lives.

Now, given a chance, with the growing opportunities around us, people have turned to doing what they’re passionate about to make a living rather than simply what is most reasonable. This means, if someone has a passion to become a doctor, they can become a doctor. If someone has a passion to work as an engineer, they can become an engineer. If someone loves taking pictures, they can build a following and eventually achieve their dream of making a living solely through a platform such as Instagram. If someone loves making videos, they have the opportunity to make videos on a website such as Youtube. This same idea can be applied to musicians. Nowadays it is so easy to obtain the software/hardware to start creating music. All it takes is passion and drive to start making money.

With this in mind, there is a huge misconception that we have as consumers of art in our daily lives. When we think about art, we (at least I) think about something that’s taken a lot of work. It’s difficult to pass something with little effort as art unless you’re already a well-known and respected artist (see Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’). We often think passion and artistic drive should come before any other reasons for creating their work. Yes, this is an important aspect of any art career, but think about it for a second. As I said earlier, now is the time when people in America are able to pursue any career that they’re passionate about. This includes being a doctor or an engineer. Yet, often choosing a career as a doctor or some other high-end job brings in a lot of cash. This can be a driving reason for someone to pursue this type of job and there’s no shame in that. We don’t think it’s wrong for a doctor to do his job for the money, as long as he does a good job at what he does. Same for the engineer, as long as he does a good job, his intentions don’t matter to us.

So, why do we have different expectations for artists? Why do we look down upon artist that want to make money through their work? Shouldn’t we look at artists who want to make a living doing what they love to do the same as anyone else who is doing what they love? If money is a big part of why they’re doing what they’re doing, as long as their art still maintains the same quality, why should we care what their intentions are? As long as their work is still good, we should appreciate what they do. Everyone needs to make a living in this world. If you can make a living doing something you’re passionate about, then by all means, you should pursue that with everything you have.

So often people settle for a job because it’s safe and they know the money will come in with a steady flow. Is life really meant to be a time where we go to work, do what we don’t really enjoy doing to make enough money to continue doing this job? Your job ends up being a place where you spend a majority of your life. Don’t look for a safe job, look for something you’re passionate about. As a Christian, I believe God has given us each specific talents and passions, and it’s crucial to pursue these to become the best person we can be.

Hopefully this article had some nugget of information that got you thinking. Let’s remember that artists are just like us. They are pursuing a career that they love. Whether or not that makes them a ton of money, we should support them in any way we can. They had the guts to take the unsafe route. Let’s all pray for the courage to do the same.