Monday, August 17, 2009

Follow Your Passion?

I know successful artists mean well when they advise young artists and photographers to damn the torpedoes and follow your passion! The part they don't verbalize, and take for granted that those young emergents hopefully, somehow, instinctively realize- is that ninety-eight per cent of those who follow that very advice will still fail. Of course, if they innately knew that- why would they ask for the secret to success in the first place? And so many, many times, it has nothing to do with their "artistic" talent. Luck, connections, business acumen, more luck (and connections) have as much to do with it as all the hard, repetitive, backbreaking work they will no doubt have to endure.

Consider the lot of these three women- all came up around the same time, all incredibly talented, all "successful" in their own way. One has continued to pump out personal work while leading a fairly comfortable living, one has barely eked out a living through no fault of her own, and one has reached the commercial financial stratosphere, only to recently experience the downside of self imposed gravity.

And then, there are the countless others (M&F) whose names we will never hear, or have long been forgotten...

1 comment:

Benjamin said...

The truth is many of the successful artists were bankrolled by their parents during their early years. they are all talented but access to funds is the number one factor.