The Creative Condition
I myself am a creative person. My ambitions, goals, and nearly all of my employment interests lie within the field of either visual art or performance. This, as is a tale told since seemingly the formation of artists in society, is an unrealistic expectation. “You need something to fall back on” says one non-believer, or “You could never make a living that way” spews the next. These are the simple realities that all artists are subjected to: the one thing you find passion and joy in possibly spending the rest of your life doing is a pipe dream; a fallacy in the minds of every naive burnout with a paintbrush and too many feelings to live with quietly. These perspectives, pushing a blatant disdain towards art as a career, are arguably within most members of our modern society- even the artist themself.
During the initial quarantine period in 2020 for the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, I recall many arguments and debates online about the financial stability, or rather the sudden lack of any stability, of those in industries of creative and artistic means. According to a 2022 article from the National Endowment for the Arts, over half of a million jobs were removed between 2019 and 2020 from the arts economy, and that’s not even including self employed artists or other cultural workers (“New Data… “2022). As an artist myself, I can imagine the vast amounts of self employed artists left out of this data, but just as negatively affected (if not even more so). Even beyond this, as the world marches on with increasing ferocity towards constant media consumption, one would believe artists would have an infinite source of career opportunities… right?
Why Do Artists Hate AI?
The updates and innovations that have led to a widespread availability for anyone with an internet connection to create AI art have clear positives, being that it gives many people an opportunity to be introduced to creating art in an wonderfully accessible way. This being said, it also eviscerates job opportunities for an possibly endless amount of artists.
Just think- how many careers built off of making digital art, illustration, and writing can now be eliminated through the use of ChatGPT, Fotor, or Canva? How many entry-level positions, that would usually otherwise encourage growth and development of skills now simply hire someone to press the “run generation” button into oblivion? Seemingly, as art becomes more easily created using AI, it also makes becoming an actual working artist even harder. “For me… there’s already a negative bias towards the creative industry. Something like this reinforces an argument that what we do is easy and we shouldn’t be able to earn the money we command.” “ (Shaffi 2023). Whether intentional or (as is more likely) unintentional, the rise of AI art has done no favors for the employment of artists, which only further plants the idea in people’s mind of the ever-”starving artist”.
The Starving Artist
The phrase “Starving Artist” refers to an artist that sacrifices their comfort, financial stability, and/or their health for the sake of furthering their craft. For some, it manifests as spending the last of their (likely meager) paycheck on paints. Or even a classic example of focusing so hard on their work, that an artist would neglect their needs for possibly days on end until they’ve “perfected” their piece. Regardless of specifics, the “starving artist” trope portrays a clear social expectation attached to creative career paths: It isn’t a real job, at least not one anybody should expect to make a living doing.
I myself have fallen into the trap of this mindset, telling myself that pursuing my true passion and working to become a full-time (and financially stable) artist was no more than a naive fantasy. Coming from a family of painters, writers, photographers, actors, etc.- even I wasn’t able to dodge the “What’s your real job going to be?” or “Don’t you have a backup plan?” questions. The fear derives from the niche and occasionally exclusive world of working artists, them being the lucky few who achieve a state of success that an immeasurable amount of dreamers fail to achieve. So, more realistically, people are diminished to working jobs they have no passion for, and from that severe lack of passion, often find themselves having trouble keeping those jobs. It feeds itself into an endless cycle, it seems, of struggling to get by. This was more prevalent than ever during the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine period.
In the time of global lockdown, nearly every person on earth was affected in some way that severely disrupted their lives. Consequently, the job market was crippled, and artists were especially torn from their stability. “The national unemployment rate in 2020 was 7.8%. Performing artists had some of the highest unemployment rates of any sector: actors (40.2%), dancers (45.6%), and musicians (27%).” (Cohen 2022). For, despite the existing difficulty in job security for these careers, this unprecedented tragedy influenced that difficulty to a desperate degree. This unemployment rate has alleviated in recent years to some extent, but the psychological and financial damage in some cases had already been done.
Standing against all apparent odds, people still choose to pursue artistic careers… Why could that be? Every day, more movie scripts are written and new songs are composed, seemingly endlessly. Why would people still pick up a paintbrush in times like these?
Why Is Art Important?
Can you imagine working a full shift at the office, dredging through assignment after assignment all day, only to come home and find there are no tv shows, movies, books, or video games to await your return? Can you imagine walking into a grocery store stocked full of food, only for every single package to be colorless and plain with simple text describing its contents? How about a long road trip without playing a single song, can you imagine that? The fruits of artistic labor enrich nearly every aspect of our daily lives, yet many still see no merit in its existence. Beyond the subtle comforts of variation and entertainment, art holds many more beneficial properties that only work to enhance a society’s quality of life.
As a tool of historic value, art often provides a record of ancient traditions and events. Whether it be a cave painting or a propaganda poster, these pieces both give context to otherwise unreachable knowledge of history, as well as shedding light on the reactions and perspectives of those who experienced it. Often a reaction to culture at the point of its creation, art exists as a sort of diary for humanity, taking inventory of our existence for the mere sake of fascination, or disgust. On top of that, it has the unique ability to transcend any number of obstacles to communicate something equally as important as what we do: how we feel.
“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are things you get ashamed of, because words make them smaller. When they were in your head they were limitless; but when they come out they seem to be no bigger than normal things.” (King 1). The thoughts and feelings that swirl around in each of our heads can so easily appear unique to us, breeding isolation and shame. One of the most rewarding aspects to art is its ability to eclipse our usual limitations and express humanity’s shared experiences in a way that speaks true to the hearts of most who witness it. Think of that one breakup playlist you may have had where every song somehow feels like a musical plagiarism of your journal, or a movie you may have seen that altered the way you felt about yourself and what you value. These are the influences that shape a person, and by proxy, a society. In my opinion, that’s pretty damn important.
In Essence…
The trials and tribulations associated with being an artist shed a negative light on its crucial effect on the world around us, however, I feel that with a greater emphasis placed on the development and support of these careers, both artists and non-artists would benefit. To stabilize the industry’s notoriously fleeting nature, one of the first steps would be to eradicate the stigma surrounding its sincerity.
Artists will likely exist as long as humanity does, and we do ourselves no favors in snubbing their work. I hope, someday, to flourish myself. I would wish it upon any artist brave enough to create in the face of such a destructive world.
CITATIONS
Spitzweg, Carl. The Poor Poet. 1839, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.
“New Data Show Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Arts & Culture Sector.” National Endowment for the Arts, www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2022/new-data-show-economic-impact-covid-19-arts-culture-sector. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
“‘It’s the Opposite of Art’: Why Illustrators Are Furious about Ai.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Jan. 2023, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jan/23/its-the-opposite-of-art-why-illustrators-are-furious-about-ai.
Cohen, Randy. “Covid-19’s Pandemic’s Impact on the Arts: Research Update May 12, 2022.” Americans for the Arts, 12 May 2022, www.americansforthearts.org/node/103614.
King, Stephen. “The Body.” Different Seasons, Viking Press, 1982, pp. 1–1.
