I wish more people in the art world heard these affirmations. I remember getting the Etsy newsletter that said “Quit your day job!” on a regular basis, and knowing that wasn’t a risk I could take. I was working near minimum wage, barely paying bills, in a workplace so poisonous that all I could do when I got home was cry myself to sleep.

When things are that tight (and comparatively, I’ve been lucky — I’ve only had to work one full-time job at once, and never lost the roof over my head or the food on my plate) art seems like a criminal waste of time. I was saved by the words of my dearest friends and family, all telling me that I needed art. That it was a part of me that could not be denied, and it was a beautiful part that should never bring me shame.

However, like myself, I know many people who have made tremendous sacrifices to create that time for their art not by choice but by necessity. I healed myself through painting and draiwng at one stage many years ago. I know many others who choose to draw and paint in the little blocks of time instead of waiting for those big ones that can’t possibly come (as you say:) Some people tell me that they sit on the bus and sketch on the way to work, others complete their art exercises in the lunchroom and/or of an evening in their Pyjama Time (the little blocks of time after everyone has gone to bed at night or in the early morning before work.) I have created entire art exhibitions in my pjs at night working one bit at a time. I was teaching up to 80 people a week in live art classes at one stage then coming home, tucking my babies into bed and then drawing and painting myself into the wee hours.

Life has many seasons and just because you can’t fulfil your love of art right now doesn’t make you or anyone else any less of an artist. I wish you luck in creating time for yourself to claim your natural birthright to draw. Everyone deserves a hobby to give them life-balance and an artist is always an artist regardless of earning any money at all from their art. Cheers!

Ashar…as for the statement that the Principle of Somerset College made it is rediculous; ‘Let them get proper jobs’ he needs to read this http://www.artpromotivate.com/2013/05/business-ideas-for-artists.html its an absolute outcry that we are depriving our children of the right to be creative.

I do not believe that art is a privilege, its a necessity. Once again we have to think about our world without it. Its that mindset that we are trying hard to convince others to understand. I have been a working artist for 20 years and provided jobs for many others. I teach teachers how to operate successful business teaching children and adults how to draw. I haven’t been out of work in 20 years and i have helped thousands of people enrich their lives. Art is a form of healing and provides an avenue for self-expression and communication that cannot be achieved through words alone. Its important that we ourselves value our artistic contributions to society then others will. I certainly value my artistic contribution to society and see it as duty to share my knowledge and art with the world. I have worked very hard to develop my skills to a level where I can earn an income accross multiple industries in art so that I can have art as my full time job. I write art course curriculum, I paint for commission and to sell in galleries, I draw for a rubber stamp art company, I license my work for putting onto products (through an agent) I mentor artists and I operate a website where I have trained some wonderful people who teach the art course curriculum that I wrote. All of this is what has brought me a good solid income for over 20 years. So it is possible to have a career in art, we just have to plan well, make sacrifices and believe its possible because it is.

Unfortunately, we have seen this argument play out here in the States in the funding battles for our schools. Art and music are constantly being threatened for elimination because they are the only subjects that are considered “optional”. What they fail to realize, of course, is that a large majority of the jobs in the future are not going to be in manufacturing products but designing them. Somehow we need to find a way to change this perspective before we end up raising a generation of kids who have been fooled into believing that compliance is more important then imagination.