Starving Artist vs. Creating Artist

My daughter will say at my eulogy that I was a hardworking mom. People say no all the fucking time and my daughter will say that she never heard that from me when it came to her dreams. Then she’ll go on to talk about how I say all the things my mother said that are weird quirks of the family-calling water towi, knives kanifees, referring to poop and lunch both as lunkers, and having a seriously disturbing obsession with The Clash, most particularly Joe Strummer. She’ll play God Save The Queen and then she’ll talk about how my career in the arts had been a beautiful and gratifying one. And then she’ll talk about how I never had a god damn dime to spare and how I ‘made do’ with what we had.

Fuck that. I’m in the business of creating opportunities for myself. I wanna know how artists make money these days. Where can income be from? If one more person asks me how I’m going to like being a waitress when they hear what my chosen profession is (acting), I’m going to punch someone’s lights out. I can’t be a server. I hate customers. I want them all to burn in hell with their condescension doubling as kindling.

I have a brand new step sister who is a youtube and an actress and she makes a really good living off of the channel she has. How do you supplement a career that is up and down and all around?

I want to investigate the world of social media to see if it can be used as a reliable income supplement. What are Youtubers and bloggers doing? How exactly does that work? What about podcasts, web series? How about becoming an Amazon affiliate or advertising for companies on your Twitter and Instagram accounts? How about Skyping with a student base to help people get through auditions and acting training? It’s all small stuff but it brings in much needed revenue. What about artistic side jobs that don’t suck? Like critiquing movies and theater for newspapers or teaching the next generation? How about renting out your car or Airbnb? How is the modern day citizen scraping by? What is there to be found on the cutting edge of Internet entertainment? If people are watching, what is it they tune in for most? For anyone who isn’t walking into a $120,000 a year starting salary in Silicon Valley, how do we manage to go to bed having had our supper?

I want to be able to genuinely talk to the world about the facts on exactly how to survive becoming an actor. Money is crucial and seemingly elusive but other people have it. Why can’t I? Do you pull an Ed Sheeran and stay homeless for four years until Elton John spots you? Or do you maintain a standard of living and rise slow and steady? All this talk just so you can get enough internet followers to make it seem like you matter to someone who is trying to hire you. I don’t have any answers. That’s why I want to ask the questions.