I've always used the arts as a way to express myself, but I've heard that trying to make money off of it is quite a challenge.

That's why I don't try to make money off of intangible products like ideas or information; instead, I build things with my knowledge. I'm an engineer.

Scientific information is for anyone and everyone, and that information can be taught by teachers, read in books, repeated infinitely, but engineered products are real. Same with any information. All ideas should be copied and used. Ideas and concepts within the creative world of the arts should be respected, but that doesn't mean that they can't be duplicated.

It's the difference between a painting and a .jpg file of a painting.
It's the difference between downloading an album, and seeing a band play live.

One is a real product or event that cannot be copied, and one is a bundle of data, which can be copied without effort.

Same with your art and ideas. Once you've written something down on the internet, you've put it into a medium where it can be duplicated infinitely for free. People will do so, and there is little you can do to stop them, unless you want to forcefully censor people using the government or something. I disapprove of that sort of thing though, and I'm not going to recall my anti-government stance just because it'd favor my wallet.

Not only that, but it's not so much what's right or wrong, but rather, the reality of the situation.

If it can be copied, it will be copied. That's just how it is.

How you deal with that is up to you, but I'm one to say: If you want to make a living, do what is profitable. Not what's fun. Arts 'n crafts is a fun hobby in school, but this world is cruel. Deliver something useful or un-reproducible, or you'll starve.