12-22-14 Thoughts on Making Art in New York City

I’ve been traveling a lot for the holidays and it’s led to my thinking a lot about how life works for an artist in America. I’ve made several conclusions:

  • Making Art can be hard because it’s difficult for me to avoid distraction and find the time to make it!
  • My full time job allows me the income and health insurance to keep me in NYC, for which I’m very grateful.
  • My job takes up 40 hours each week.  Hence the paradox of working a day job to support your Art.
  •  I need to keep paying my bills in order to stay in NYC.
  • New York City is an expensive place to live.
  • Art can be a powerful mode of communication, for entertainment and for political change.

Realizing these points is illuminating, a bit freaky and also lead to more questions:

  • How can I adjust my NYC lifestyle so I have more time to make Art?
  • How can I effectively protest against US policies with which I disagree?
  • How can I truly practice my right to free speech?
  • What kinds of Art can I make to express myself most truly?

Sometimes it helps to think about winning the lottery, because it takes the issue of money out of my scenario.

So if I won the lottery, what would I do? I’d make Art full time! Write a book, travel the world with a camera, work to solve homelessness, work to save the environment, etc, etc, etc.

Good to know. So, can the above realizations lead to greater output for me as a writer, photographer and blogger?

These thoughts seem to be a puzzle and if I can only figure out how the pieces fit together, I’ll have a winning combination: I’ll have all the time I need to make Art. Or, I could look at it even more philosophically, and say the process of putting the puzzle pieces together is the answer. Wow, pretty heavy thoughts for a Monday morning!

What do you think? Are these only question specific to artists living in the USA?

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Posted December 22, 2014 by Gabriel in category "Inspiring