The artist and the art business are separate but closely linked, and sometimes by doing the art you turn it into a business, and other times you end up doing art by walking away from the business. To be able to treat the two differently allows you to create art for personal reasons and create artworks to sell for business reasons. I find that if you mix the two together then it becomes hard to be an artist or a business person.

I make miniature origami cranes from flower petals, and I have never seen anyone do this before. What is the value of this? Well, you can pick up a flower petal from the ground for nothing, but to spend two weeks to press it, and then 2-3 hours to turn it into a piece of origami model smaller than the size of your fingernail. I don't think people can pay me to do that, but I would like to think that some people might think there is value in it.

So there are things that I do for my own reasons, and there are things that I can sell (let go of) because people see some value in it. I hope that you can also find the right balance with the type of art that you do. I really like your artwork and I know that there are a few people who are also doing similar things to try and make a living from it (@fluffywiggle and @shoumi come to mind). Together I hope we can all encourage and support each other :)