The Struggle of Making Art

The struggle for artists to make a living from their work is a real and persistent challenge. Making enough money to pay the bills is a huge battle for many artists. Some of the obstacles are inner fights, like the topic of Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, where we fight blocks and barriers to creativity. Some of the challenges are from society at large, which is where we get the expression “starving artists.” This newsletter was originally named “The Art Crusade” because I was reflecting on the various battles an artist has to wage on a daily basis. I wonder if The Art Crusade is the better name for the newsletter.

Rejection

While researching a sketchnote for Frank Herbert and his novel Dune this weekend, I discovered the struggle he had to overcome in order to get his book published. Dune was initially rejected by more than twenty different publishers. He persisted, and a publisher of car repair manuals decided to publish the book. It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there, but his book eventually found creative success.

Throwback

Throwback to a March 2021 image from my Art Crusade newsletter. Many of us in the United States have had warmer-than-usual weather over the last few days, hinting at the arrival of spring. It reminded me of the quote in the illustration above from Ernest Hemingway’s book A Moveable Feast.

Projects and Support

I have been feeling the struggle more over the last couple of months. Normally, my creative work is subsidized by doing contract work as a UX/UI designer, but I have not had billable hours for almost two months now. On the upside, I have had more time to create and work on my art.

I don’t like to talk about upcoming work due to fear of jinxing it, but I do have two books that I’m working on and hope to release soon. They will be self-published. I have not even found a car manual repair company to publish my work yet. They don’t know what they are missing. Think of how beautiful their instructions would look as sketchnotes.

Thank you all for reading my more personal-than-usual newsletter and for your continued support.

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