Artists (and Everyone!): What Makes You Feel REWARDED?

One of our long-time artists came by the gallery yesterday.

It turned out to be a bit of a sad visit, because it turned out that he had mainly come to see us to let us know that he was no longer going to be bringing us new work.

"It's just not fun or rewarding anymore," he said "and my girlfriend and I have been talking about starting a family so I've decided to go back to a full-time drafting job."

Caught in a Squeeze

As we talked a bit more, it became clearer that our friend was caught in the same kind of "squeeze" we see more and more artists wrestle with, these days.

For years, James had been making most of his living from doing outdoor art shows and festivals during the summer months-- and a few during the holiday season-- supplemented with consignment sales through a small group of regional art galleries. 

He cited a trend we see at the gallery, as well: People would very much admire his work and commend him on his talent when visiting his booth... and then increasingly leave with smartphone photos of his work, rather than his actual work. 

Not a "Price Thing," a "Changing Lifestyles Thing"

Guessing-- at first-- that his declining sales were the result of a poor economy (this was 5-6 years ago), James had started making smaller "open edition" prints of his work. But it had made little difference.

But he'd noticed that his "older" (over 50) clientel were still buying his art as before but they were fewer and fewer, while his younger visitors-- who loved his work-- were simply not art buyers. 

Either they were not homeowners, or were living in multi-person housing situations, or buckling (financially) under the weight of student loans and other debt. 

Art... and Commercial Viability

Of course, James is not retiring from Being An Artist. He assured us that he would always be an artist because he "had to create." However, that creativity would now have to be accommodated within the framework of a "regular" full-time job. 

An interesting aside to this story was his admission that in spite of being "a full-time artist," he'd only had time to paint three original paintings this year! The rest of his time had been given over to the business end of "being an artist."

And so, creativity was just not rewarding, anymore. And not in the "financial" sense, but in the sense that it felt like a burden, or an obligation... and not something fulfilling and enriching.

What Makes Us Feel Rewarded?

James' visit-- although a bit sad-- made us think about the whole issue of what makes us feel "rewarded," in life.

Whereas it can be very nice to "have enough money to do whatever we want," what good is that really if it requires us to give so much of ourselves to get there that we have no energy left over to actually enjoy our success?

Aside from monetary rewards, we can also talk about psychological, emotional and spiritual rewards. These are intangibles... like the old saying "You can't put a price tag on happiness."

If we look at the microcosm of Steemit, it might be "rewarding" to watch the dollar value scroll up when we get upvotes... but many a writer might like to have a $10 post with lots of comments and interaction more than a $30 post purely upvoted by bots.

For an artist, the "joy of creation" and being able to pursue that on your own time might be "the reward," but then again, "being commercially viable" might be the reward-- or some combination of the above.

So this is where we open it up to discussion: First off, are you an artist, writer, musician or other creative? Do you materially depend on your work "for a living?" Whether you do-- or not-- what makes it "rewarding?" What does "rewarding" feel like? Even in you're NOT in a creative field... how does something "being rewarding" manifest in your life? Leave a comment!

 The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.