Thoughts on being an independent artist
I started this journey five years ago, and after the events of 2020/21, I'm sure I can welcome a lot of you on this exciting and sometimes frightening road. If I had to write a few keywords about my experience as a creator, I think they would be independence, survival, struggle and satisfaction. If your keyword is money, well, do I have some bad news for you. :) I don't think there was ever a year since I started on this journey that I earned as much as I would be earning back in the UK, in my comfortably soul crushing office jobs, yet the independence and the satisfaction of being able to make it with my own talent makes it more than worth it.
It's constant work (what's a weekend, anyway?), having to be an artist, a businessman, a social media manager, an accountant, a public relations expert, a web developer and so on - and that's just an average Monday-, yet if you can get to a point of relative stability, maybe even hire your first employee (I wish!), I believe it to be a much better life than the offices and cubicles.
I understand that a lot of people don't want to take the risks and they rather appreciate the safety that a fixed income provides, but I think of this as my newest adventure. It might have to end, I might have to go back to being an employee for a while, but that wouldn't be failure, just a chapter and an adventure finished. I really don’t want to though, so I don’t know… is this the right place to say please buy my maps? :)
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