The starving artist is an overused and dangerous stereotype that is so often portrayed in the media, a mad genius barely scraping by until their sudden stroke of genius is recognized and is accepted by the world with open arms.
They struggle to get by from day to day, barely keeping their lives together. They will always triumph in the end, reaching stardom and a stroll down the red carpet.
Many of our most celebrated heroes had struggled their way onto the stage. They deserve the praise after all of those years and years of hard work.
Some of the most famous names on the television and the news have escaped a life of poverty and misfortune.
The queen of television Oprah Winfrey had been born into a childhood of poverty, abuse, and prejudice. Growing up, she didn’t even have running water.
She has since risen to unparalleled fame with a net worth of nearly three billion dollars.
Keanu Reeves is a beloved actor with global stardom with his amazing performance in movies such as “The Matrix” and the “John Wick” movie series.
He grew up with a rocky childhood that continued to be tragic even as he grew older as he slowly lost the people who he loved greatly. His story is a story of quiet strength which has made many people respect his resilience.
J.K Rowling had suffered through many misfortunes in her life, struggling to raise her children as a single mother and had lived a life in relative poverty. She still wrote the legendary books following the adventures of the Boy who Lived, a book series that rivals even the Bible with the amount of copies sold.
Although I disagree with many of Rowling’s views and the way she portrays her prejudices in her books, it is impossible to ignore the fact that she had persevered through hardships and I grudgingly admire her grit.
There is something so noble about the idea of an artist; a quiet mind working tirelessly to make the white canvas before them beautiful, a performer waltzing before the audience, a musician dragging melodies out of a beautiful but lifeless instrument, an actor becoming the ghost of a memory of another soul.
People tend to romanticize the idea of the starving artist, taking pride and relishing the idea.
Yet, when someone tells us about their aspirations of pursuing a career in the arts, few will actually appreciate them.
Everybody will always say that a degree in the arts is useless, that the fancy college diploma in your hand would only lead to a lifetime working behind the counter as a cashier at the McDonald’s a ten minute walk from your old high school.
It is an undeniable truth that to become a well-known artist, you need patrons.
The most famous name in art history, Leonardo Da Vinci, couldn’t have gotten anywhere with his artistic career without the patronage of some of the powerfulest people of his time such as the Medici family and the king of France at the time, just to name a few.
The Medici family were one of the richest and most powerful families in Italy. They invested in the talents of artists and are the patrons of some of the greatest artists of all time such as Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo, Donatello, and many more.
As much as we romanticize the starving artist, it is impossible to ignore the fact that, to actually succeed, we will need to have powerful people vouching for us and a lot of money.
No matter how talented you are, you won’t get anywhere without a reputation and a whole lot of funding.
We all want to be artists until it’s time to pay the rent.
For many of us, pursuing a life in the arts is very much akin to gambling in a casino. Few of us can expect to walk away with our pockets filled with money.
The most we can hope for is to enjoy the journey, isn’t that why we had turned to the arts in the first place?