When you’re an artist, you think that the key to being happy is being able to do what you love for money.

I took a walk with an acquaintance last year. She told me her husband was a talented and very in-demand artist. But he wasn’t happy because he was always doing commissions for demanding clients.

Artists throughout history have had the same problem.

In more oldy-times (yes, that’s a technical term) painters, sculptors, musicians, and playwrights answered to the rich and powerful who commissioned their work. We often see these works now as the masterpieces they are, but don’t necessarily think that maybe when Michelangelo was commissioned to create the Pieta, he might have really wanted to sculpt something else entirely.

Okay, so maybe Michelangelo wouldn’t have gotten this far, but maybe he just wanted to, you know, sculpt his mom or something…

Money vs Art

I recently saw an artist I follow on Instagram post a diatribe about how when people buy her stuff, it’s often because a post went viral, so then she gets stuck creating that same thing OVER and OVER again, even if she wants to move on and create something totally different.

Ad agency creatives tend to be young. Why? I think it’s because those coming into the industry from college are idealistic and hopeful. They believe their ideas will be good enough that the client will fall all over themselves, throwing millions of dollars at the campaign that will win them all the Clio. After a decade or so of this, you see the copywriters and art directors get burned out from having their ideas warped beyond recognition over and over again. The disillusionment can set in pretty quick if you let it.

Then there’s the actor in Hollywood who gets on a long-running TV sitcom as a series regular, but actually longs to do more serious film roles. What do you do? Give up that paycheck? It won’t be there forever, and it can vanish in a millisecond.

Of course you take the money!

But if you don’t find a way to make time for the thing that’s really calling to your soul, you might wake up twenty years later with a lot of money but completely unfulfilled.

Your Money or Your Life

The trick is to find a way to do both.

As an artist of any kind, unless you are very, very lucky, you may never be able to do ONLY exactly what you want and make enough money doing it to create a life.

If you get to that place, count yourself truly blessed.

For most of us, it’s a balance.

For instance, if you got into voiceover because you really want to voice animated characters…well, that journey can be a very long process. And in the meantime, you might either need to do some very unglamorous corporate narration, or get good at doing commercials so that you can get the type of agents that would be able to get you the type of auditions you want.

For me, I want to do commercials. And I do, some, but a lot of what I do is corporate narration and e-learning, a little bit of IVR, and whatever else I book.

I love voiceover. I do. But recording corporate scripts just isn’t artistically fulfilling in the way performing on stage can be.

I got into voiceover not for artistic fulfillment, but because I knew it was an easier way to make money than theatre or film. (SAG-AFTRA Statistic: Only TWELVE PERCENT of SAG-AFTRA’s membership made $26K last year as actors)

I had burned out a bit on stage work, and harbored quite a bit of resentment towards it, because like a newborn baby, it required constant attention, care, and sacrifice. Except this baby never grew up. It continued to suck my time, money, and energy in a way that was unsustainable.

I think the best thing I’ve ever seen anyone write about this is when Liz Gilbert posted this on Facebook.

(I encourage you to click on that link and read it, but for those who refuse, the basic gist is: DON’T ASK YOUR CREATIVITY TO SUPPORT YOU)

In her book, “Big Magic,” she talks about her own journey and commitment to her writing:

“Instead, I simply vowed to the universe that I would write forever, regardless of the result. I promised that I would try to be brave about it, and grateful, and as uncomplaining as I could possibly be. I also promised that I would never ask writing to take care of me financially, but that I would always take care of it—meaning that I would always support us both, by any means necessary. I did not ask for any external rewards for my devotion; I just wanted to spend my life as near to writing as possible—forever close to that source of all my curiosity and contentment—and so I was willing to make whatever arrangements needed to be made in order to get by.”

Creativity can be messy and unpredictable.

Creation is the Key to Escaping Your Scarcity Mindset

When you are a stage actor or film/TV actor, you live in a constant Oliver Twist-level poverty mindset—”please, sir, may I have another?”

Another what? Doesn’t matter. We aren’t picky. We’ll do whatever.

Yes, we will complain nonstop when we don’t get the part we want, or get cast at the theater we’ve been trying to get cast at for 12 straight years. But we want to work, so we’ll take anything.

When I was still doing stage work, I also took jobs as a princess at Mall of America, as a fortune teller at high school graduations, as a sexy nurse singing telegram, birthday party Elmo, patient for medical simulations. Some of these gigs were more fun than others, but they weren’t what I really wanted to be doing.

If I could go back and give my earlier self a bit of advice, I’d say:

Create more for yourself
Say no to more things

In your hands, you have the power to create worlds and new realities.

Creation is Magic

In college, I noticed that the people who tended to get opportunities were those who were also already busy, often creating for themselves.

I didn’t understand how to make that happen. I had ideas, but bringing anything to completion was just daunting. And honestly, I don’t believe it really gets easier. But once you’ve done it, at least you have proof you CAN do it, and you may even have developed a process that you can follow to get there again.

Those who create become beacons for others. They attract those who are also creating who want to cross-pollinate, and they attract those who are not creating, who see them as magical beings, born with something they lack.

It’s not true, though. We all have it in us.

Start small. Energy will build as you gain momentum.

Creation Gives You Energy

Have you ever gotten sucked into a creative project and looked up three hours later, no idea how it’s dark outside?

That just happened while I was writing this blog.

I didn’t want to write, but I made myself sit down and start writing, and here it is…quite a bit later, and now I don’t want to stop. I want to see it through to its completion and see where it goes.

In the inertia of our day to day lives, it can be easy to follow the same habitual pattern of behavior: come home, take the dog out, make dinner, eat dinner, binge TV, get ready for tomorrow, etc.

And then you wake up and five years have passed, and you barely remember most of what you’ve watched.

You know what else is creative, expressive, and restorative? DANCING. Moving your body just to feel alive!

Creation is Restorative

There’s nothing wrong with consumption. But I truly believe it shouldn’t be all we do.

If you come home at the end of the day, it’s fine to zone out for a bit, but science has shown that binge-watching your favorite TV show isn’t restorative the way that writing, painting, photography, or gardening can be.

Want better sleep? Learn a new song on your guitar instead of watching another hour of Yellowstone.

If you do art for a living, try playing with a different art form for fun. Work that creative muscle in a different way.

Creation Gives You Purpose

Whether you’re working full time at a law firm, as a cocktail waitress, or as a voice actor, you might find your work challenging and fulfilling…or you might not.

As I mentioned above, in regards to the advertising creatives…the ones who were able to keep going and not get burned out were the ones who were able to separate their own creative identity from their creative work at work. Some of them did photography or illustration, acted, or wrote screenplays. Sometimes they tried to sell that other thing, but often not.

The point was not whether or not an end product was created, but the act of being creative itself.

During the pandemic, when everything stopped for much of 2020, I spent a lot of time just playing and creating in a way I hadn’t since I was a kid. Not necessarily trying to create a product, or content to be consumed, but just having fun.

I wrote a song parody about the pandemic, and and two talented voiceover friends played the piano part and sang it. I feel badly that I never shared their work with the world, because I think it turned out really great. But I was creating to create, and without a video to go with it, it didn’t feel complete. And I ran out of steam for that part.

2020 and 2021 were rough years. They really were.

I wrote a lot. Played my ukulele (poorly). Sang. Made silly videos for Instagram sometimes. Took a lot of pictures of flowers and plants on my walks.

Creating gave me purpose as we all navigated an unprecedented level of isolation and collective fear.

Want to feel like you are able to conquer the world? Start adding to it with your creativity.

Creation Lets You Take Back Your Power

To finish this off, let me mention the strike again.

Currently, the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) are both on strike because they would like better working conditions and compensation from the AMPTP (an acronym that refers to all of the big production companies that have a virtual monopoly on film and TV production).

While the strike is on, union actors (and anyone who ever wants a chance to join the union) cannot work for any of the struck companies.

BUT…as certain Hollywood performers have pointed out…that doesn’t mean that people can’t take things into their own hands.

It wouldn’t happen overnight, but we could start creating outside the existing system, and build something new.

So, I hope you create. Start small, with no aim in mind except allowing yourself to express something within you.

Take back the power that you’ve been giving away to systems outside yourself.

We are, all of us, creative beings. So get out there, get your hands dirty, and just PLAY!!

Okay?

I believe in you. 😊

In related news:

I’ve got a new podcast out (like a real, ongoing podcast!) which is me and my co-host Brandon Duke talking to artists who aren’t waiting for opportunities, but are out there creating them. It’s called Scratch, Claw, Push, and the first two episodes (plus two bonus episodes!) are out now.

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