“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

Most of my co-workers are artists, writers, musicians but to be practical to support yourself and/or your family you do need that boring 9-5 job. Nobody can survive in this American society without medical and dental insurance or without paying rent. The push now in the USA is STEM.

Those of us gifted in the Humanities or any Artistic pursuit are given very little recognition or support. Actually if you do your research most artists we celebrate today were poor during their lifetimes and almost no recognition. Except for the few that were able to get rich patrons you knew that following your dream often meant living in abject poverty. Then in order to keep the money flowing you more or less created your patron’s dream not yours.

As for Women Artists and Artists of Color when you go to a museum how many paintings or sculptures do you see from these groups displayed in your local museum? Not many. Most live and die in obscurity. Yes there are the rare few that make it such as Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley but how much do you know about Augusta Savage? When was the last time there was a blockbuster art exhibit featuring Black Women/Men artists or photographers?

Zora Neale Hurston died poor and forgotten until years later when Alice Walker brought her to the forefront but she never experience financial success during her lifetime.

As much as I would like to pursue my photography and writing full-time I also have chronic medical conditions that require me to have medical insurance. Nor is my landlord gonna let me live rent free. My job requires long hours and is tedious but it is better than starving or being homeless. Also my developmentally disabled brother depends on me so I won’t be living in flights or fantasy or delusion any time soon.

I think we need to be more practical. My parents always encouraged my creativity and artistic pursuits when I was a young girl growing up but they also reminded me that they would not always be around to support me. Sure enough they both died young in their 60s. The dreams they had became dust in the wind and I knew I had to get serious about life so I could earn a living and support myself. Fortunately if God allows I will retire in about 2 years. Then once life becomes stable will I be able to move onto what I really want to do with my life.