Blog 10 or Art is Always Commerce

Maybe not cave paintings but hasn't art always existed to make the artist some money? There are exceptions of course as there is to everything, but i can't imagine an artist not wanting to make enough money to survive or at least eat something. I knew an artist who would get so busy, so involved in her work that she would forget to eat. Only later when she was ready to collapse from exhaustion and hunger would she stop and think, "oh yeah i haven't had anything to eat all day." But she still wanted to make money for her work. Bills to pay, etc. We have less, I imagine, of the patron artist in today's world. There are grants available but eventually the money goes away and you have to fins a way to pay the bills.

There also seems to be a difference in the medium. It appears that writers don't have a problem taking the money or so the press would show. Though there is probably one million starving authors for every one Stephen King and a million painters for every Thomas Kinkade (give me the million, thank you), etc. We hear about popular authors, musicians much more than we hear about popular "artists" probably because those mediums are much more accessible to the masses. But holy cow there are a lot of art galleries in NYC and for that matter in Harrisburg and they all seem to want to make some money.

I don't see any problem with that.