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"Where I to love money, I should lose all power of original thought. Desire of gain deadens the genius in man. My business is not to gather gold, but to make glorious shapes."
-- William Blake *
I have this struggle: The more I try to monetize my art the more it fades away from me. Which is frustrating, as I want to make a living from my art. I want to work full time on writing and painting, but my creative spark disappears the more I try to make that happen. So I have this funny sort of cycle. I play, creating out of enjoyment, and my output increases. Then I start to get ideas. "Now's the time...let's package this up and try and sell it somehow." Then it all becomes work and toil and the creative spigot is shut off. I wander in darkness for a while, then, much later, I remember how much I enjoyed art, and the cycle starts anew.
Advice
The best Advice I ever got,
That Writers Write and Painters Paint,
Is quickly set aside while trying
To make a Product from my Art.
How I forget my Love of Words!
The wond’rous Joys of Scribbled Thoughts
And Strokes of Colored Ink and Wash
Are Lamps that Light my Space Inside.
But wanting Gold from all my Shapes,
Light fades, and I soon cease to Play.
I'm beginning to think about art differently though. Instead of Art as a viable means to make a living, which is something I keep trying to force it to be, I'm beginning to think of art simply as a blessing. I am so incredibly rich to have the leisure to write or paint. I can afford oil paints. I have access to poetry, books, museums, etc. In the grand sceme of history, I really have an unprecidented amount of time and resources to spend on such things. I may not ever have the opportunity to work full-time on my art, but compared to what William Blake had, who lived most of his life in poverty, I am incredibly rich. I find that I am becoming content and grateful that I can practice any sort of art at all.
* Quote from William Blake: The Gates of Paradise
, p136.
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