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?