If you want a career in any creative field, you have to let go of a lot of entrenched attitudes, especially about money.
The first, most widely held, most pernicious myth is, "You can't make a living as a cartoonist/painter/dancer/musician/mime/writer/etc..."
Friends, relatives, strangers in line at the supermarket will tell you that, especially when you're young. I haven't had a day job in over fifteen years, and a 'helpful' soul in line with me at the bank the other day kept insisting I had to have some other way of making my living. She wanted to know what my 'real' job was.
Yes, many are called and few are chosen. Who says you can't be one of the few?
Yes, you will have to work hard. At something you love and would probably do all day for free anyway.
Yes, you have to be innovative and proactive. There are no listings in the want ads for ballerinas and sculptors. You'll have to find your own ways in to those worlds, or create your own job. Show some gumption!
But it can be done. People *do* it.
It takes faith, courage, determination, plenty of hard work and creativity, and the ability to ignore those who say it can't be done.
True Story: In my late twenties, my mom saw that I travelled a lot and didn't have a 'real' job. She also knows I'm too honest for a life of crime.
So she reached the only natural conclusion.
A series of conversations followed.
"Mom, I'm not a secret agent."
"That's okay. I know you couldn't tell me if you were."
"But I'm not."
"I understand. Just so long as it's our government."
"Mom, seriously. I'm not a secret agent."
"Fine. Operative. Asset. Whatever they're calling it these days..."
After all, everyone knows you can't make a living from art!
