I am a 30 year old artist Without any major success. I had a lot of opportunities before the pandemic. Unfortunately Covid and then political and personal matters spilled over beyond my control My work and social circle. I lost contacts and had no time for networking.
My art has evolved with me and become less conceptual, more narrative and accessible. The most gratifying moment in the last few months was when I surprised a local cashier with an example. Still, I’m beginning to doubt that I can move people with my art.
I don’t know how to reach people without spending hours and hours on social media (which is dying), and the progress of generative AI worries me. Art makes little or no money and, while I put my whole soul and heart into it, my energy (and health) is not infinite. I also see other, bigger, well-known artists struggling when their work was used to train AI models without their consent. I keep asking myself: “What’s the matter?” I don’t think there is any respect for art and artists, cartoonists, illustrators in our culture anymore. Should I just give up?
Eleanor says: Do you remember when you started making art, perhaps as a child? When you first picked up a pencil, something motivated you to keep going. Maybe the thought wasn’t “I want to do this for money” or “I want other people to recognize my skill at this work”. Something about the activity itself called you back.
If I’m hearing you correctly, you no longer know whether you want to continue making art, given the lack of money, cultural respect, or industry success you’ve had so far. Of course this makes sense; Anyone would find this demoralizing. But the strange thing is that money or success or cultural respect probably wasn’t the point of making art in the first place. You just wanted to do it; It seemed inexhaustible.
Because we have to make money somehow, things have to measure up somehow, being an “artist” in adult terminology means being someone who makes art for money with success. But I think it’s fair to question how much one has to make art one’s own work, or whether one should strive to remain “on the art scene.” Apart from the question of whether one should keep making art.
The first question is: “Should I keep trying to make art a major part of my way of making money?” This is a financial decision. How much you should pay in time and opportunity costs depends entirely on what the rest of your financial stability looks like. Money is one part of life where I think we can and should make decisions with the cold hard math of expected utilities. If you can help it, your long-term residence or retirement are not things to gamble with.
A different question is: “Should I keep making art even though I’m not sure I’ll ever be recognized as an artist?” We want to be recognized for our talent. We want the things we make with skill and care to be valued. I completely hear your concerns about how artists can get this recognition in the age of AI. And yet, in the same breath, you have a completely straightforward and beautiful story of identity from the woman for whom you created your illustration. It shines through for you as something that feels gratifying. Reaching people with your art isn’t just a matter of digital footprint or industry metrics.
Of course, the need to market ourselves imposes metrics on us – it may force us to think in terms of “impressions”, or audience size, or obtaining grants. (And the more you need to make money through your art, the more liable you are to measure it up to those standards). But when you ask if you’re getting any recognition for your work, also try to measure things like human beings accomplished, days made, meaning felt, moments that you found very gratifying.
The third, final, question is: “Should I keep making art?” Even if it doesn’t make money? Even if the algorithm doesn’t value it? Although things are going downhill all around me, I sense a growing carelessness in the culture, indifference to the craft – should I keep making art? To this, you may well reply: Why would I stop?
This letter has been edited.
