Here is a video made by the Australia Council that lays out some statistics about Australian artists. Perhaps they’re not so different in other English-speaking countries. I was in 2 minds about showing this. On the one hand, I didn’t want to reinforce the social hypnosis that artists struggle. And yet, if this is the current reality for you, as an artist, then you can’t create change without acknowledge your current reality without denial. It’s the old self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe an artist is poor, then you will be. Unless you can imagine yourself a success, you won’t be.
What this video shows are statistics, particularly averages. In anything, there will be an average. There is a another social hypnosis that causes a person, when they see an average, to feel they can’t rise above it. To rise above it, you have to make a decision that you will be more successful than average. That decision may or may not be easy to come to. For many artists, that raises all kinds of issues regarding self-worth, worth of their art, worth of art in general. There may be parts-conflicts, eg part of me believes that artists should be well-rewarded, but part of me wonders if society actually needs art.
So I’ll show this video anyway. I think it’s very well-made. But view it in the spirit of research – this is the current lay of the land, on average. Where do I want myself to fit in? Am I happy being at the top of the bell curve? Or am I going to be extraordinarily successful. I leave you with this thought – if you give a lot of value to society, society will reward you by giving you a lot of value (most likely in the form of money) in return. How are you giving value to society?
(If you’re not seeing the video, click here.)