On being a professional artist

On the way to New York I was in the next seat to the famous Russian artist. The work is small.  We have a long flight of 9 hours from Moscow.  We talked about many things but one stood in my mind.  He said it simply:  the professional artist spends 20% of the time creating and 80% marketing.  Armature artists do just the opposite.

It is so much easier to seat in the studio and create.  But the world is already overloaded with art as well as other things.  Unless you can find a good against who will do it for you will likely to be where most of the artists end - in obscurity.  If you find a good agent you can consider yourself blessed.  Luck is not logical and cannot be explained.  It just is.  

It is also good idea to remember that may great things in life you created by very talented armatures.  You want the names?  Alexandr Pushkin the greatest Russian poet (Eugene Onegin) was a public servant. Vinicius de Moraes (the author of “The Girl from Ipanema”) was a professional diplomat.  If you are not familiar with that song you should listen to it as soon as you finish reading this sentence. Serge Gainsburg (french performer provocateur) spend years studding painting till finally he said “F$ck art, Make a fortune” and did just that.  He became a song writer and a performer.

We are living creates and we change it time.  People around us always try to imprison us into a category they are comfortable with.  But we do not have to accept the category they assign us.  Nor do we have to be someone, or be someone for very long!