Thank You For Asking Me, An Artist, To Do Things For Free
I should be the one paying you.
Thank you, my ‘friend,’ for giving me yet another opportunity to work on your request for free. For I am an artist, and I was born to do things like creating email campaigns, social-media posts, and brand logos without getting paid.
When I chose this never-ending path of unpaid exposure years ago, I was not sure how I would make it. Thanks to you though, I never have to worry about free work ever again.
Whenever you send me a text or an email asking me to do you a favor, like make a flyer, or paint a mural for your start-up, or write and record a hit folk song for your product launch, I pray, “Please let it be unpaid.” When it is — which, it always is — I buy candles at full-price from my own Etsy, ones I crafted myself, to celebrate.
People don’t understand why I work multiple odd jobs, no matter how many times I tell them, “So that I can keep doing favors for my ‘friends.’”
I’m obligated to do things gratis for anyone who asks me. It’s in the Artist’s Constitution. Between the sections Exposure — the efficacious eternal elegant elixir and Hunger — the hearty healthy heavenly habit. Besides, money is poppycock; my personal needs, overrated; my bills, unpaid.
