You aren't a creative failure just because you have a day job
You don't have to monetize your art
I’ve met a ton of new people via Substack lately (this is largely thanks to the incredible community we’re building over at
— go check it out if you haven’t already).I’ve never had the experience of meeting so many people via my writing. It’s been wonderful. It’s also stirred up a surprising insecurity.
Most people here know me through my writing, and I’ve noticed that I feel a little weird when I mention that I have a day job.
As if that’s a bad thing.
As if needing a day job makes me a creative failure.
As if I’m not a real artist because I haven’t monetized my art.
Ugh, there’s that word again: monetize.
It’s a burning question for so many of us: How do I monetize my art so I can quit my day job?
There’s nothing wrong with this question, and I know in my heart that it’s not the right question for me. Just read it, I can feel my shoulders tighten. Something clenches in my belly. The pursuit of monetization has lead me to burnout and bad advice, and I suspect I’m not alone.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself a different question:
How can my day job support my creative practice?
Whoa. That feels really different. Spacious. Easeful. Like I’m opening up new possibilities instead of doggedly following a single path.
There are many ways to be an artist.
There are many ways to live a creative life.
There is never, ever, ever one right way to succeed.
Daily Lithops update
Because y’all asked so nicely, here’s my daily Lithops update: I held it up to the light this morning, and I didn’t have to squint quite as hard as yesterday to spot the new leaf pair. 😃
Thanks for the Lithops update 🤓
I wrote about this from a different POV a few weeks ago in 'Passion won't pay the rent'
I wanted some people in my life to feel like they could go for corp trips to the Chicago Bean without guilt and still nurture other creative pursuits
This is a great point, I was thinking of writing something about it too. I think the issue is that ‘being an artist’ is both similar to, and different from ‘being a _____’ (insert any other profession). Like, nobody needs a day job to support their medical practice, right? Few people will rely on a day job to help them expand their accountancy practice. The practice would be the job and it would be supporting itself, right?
But with the arts we have a large overlap of art as something every human being at some level craves to engage in in order to enrich their inner life (something few have said about accountancy), and art as an actual professional practice. Then on top of that we also have the fact that many people engaging with the arts in a very professional manner still have a hard time paying bills with that work alone (I’m one of those people). Because it’s a wonderful profession, but really not a great field to work in.
It’s a weird tangle for sure. But 100% if you are making art you are an artist. Even if you have three day jobs on top.