[dropcap]K[/dropcap]endra Aarchus, a cosmetologist, wrote an article called What No One Tells You About Being A Hairstylist on “LiveAbout” about the struggles of being a hairstylist.  Some of those problems were very rough hours, aching pain in their bodies, rarely any breaks if they want to keep having a living, tantrum-throwing toddlers, and dealing with lots of bugs and hair slivers.

 Hairstylists usually work early hours before their clients go to work and late hours after their clients work.  They have to get frequent physical therapy due to them repeating the motions of cutting, coloring, brushing, and styling.  That causes aches and pains that are unbearable. They also have to conform to their client’s schedules because that’s the only way they’ll get customers and the only way they get paid!  

In the article, the author explains, “there are a few things that I, and several stylists that I talked to, wish we knew about the “job” before we dove in head first.”  

One hairstylist even had a man come in who had weird white stuff on his head.  It was bird poop! He either just wanted a hairdresser to take care of it or just didn’t notice at all!

All this to say, even though these cosmetologists go through so many problems in their jobs, their work is still considered a job!  What they do does not do anything like cure cancer, but it’s still a job. The same can be said for other professions that some would not categorize as a real job.  One of those activities is art. Despite all the hardships that come with being an artist of any kind, artistry is a real job.

There’s No Money In It!

Only 10% of all graduated art students actually make a living out in the world!  That means that 90% of those students either become starving artists, are forced to get other jobs, or even are forced to give up their dream altogether.  Then the how many semesters at the art college were for nothing. Annrea, who wrote the article Sometimes Artists Just Have To… Quit! on “The Making Art Making Money Program”, claims that “sometimes it actually pays to just, quit!”.  This is because when she didn’t sell enough to pay her bills, it was best for her to get a better job and make better cash.  

Picture by Steffi Reichert via Flickr

All of that to say, it’s understandable why so many people would say that art gets you nowhere in life and you should spend your time and money in college going for a better career.  However, let’s not forget that there are some art jobs, outside of traditional art like drawing, painting, and sometimes writing, that make a very good living for their artwork.

For example, the average Graphic Designer as of 2016 has a median salary of $47,640.  That is only a little under the $50,000 that the average American makes a year! Also, the average makeup artists in New York were said to have made $93,390 a year.  Makeup Artists in California make about $73,240 a year while in Texas, they make $42,650.

There are so many other jobs like Art Directors, Business Managers, Professors, etc.  Then there are Animators, Graphic Designers, and Interior Designers. Those are just some of the most recommended jobs for artists and those all will get them a living and a wish come true.

Artists Are All Alone!

Because being an artist is usually a pretty competitive job, some artists will work alone, with some occasional collabs with fellow artists.  [perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Artists have to advertise themselves[/perfectpullquote]

make their own websites, businesses, and art by themselves. However, that is very hard on a person, so many artists will get involved in partnerships with businesses that will showcase their art.  Although that means they rely heavily on those businesses.

As found out by Annrea, success came from being a team with some great businesses, but then “two vital strategic partnerships failed” and she had to quit art (Sometimes Artists Just Have To… Quit!).  This was a result of a loss of money. Ever heard of a starving artist? That is a literal term.

Now, let me introduce Kumi Yamashita, a Japanese Artist who has done solo showcases in eight different art museums, group shows in ten different museums, and private and public collections showed in eleven museums!  One time, though, a partnership with “Public Art Network” (PAN) got her sculpture in the top 40 public works in the nation! Not all partnerships are bound to fail.

What Good Does It Do?

When people go to an art museum and look at all the sculptures, paintings, and drawings, they might think that the only good those pieces do is make the artist money.  It just sits there and all people do is look at it. That doesn’t seem very revolutionary,

An anonymous writer on “Debate.org”, on the topic of ‘Is Art A Waste of Time?’, asks “how many people could you have helped with that time or money?”.

Picture by Susan from Flickr

Now, those art pieces are not completely insignificant.  Think of when you are driving down a freeway and you notice a billboard advertisement.  Let’s say there is a person on there smiling and doing a thumbs up. There’s a large title, a subtitle, a website, and a phone number.  The background is a cool dark blue swirl. What good is that doing? Well, it’s helping to promote the company, give options to consumers depending on what the ad is for.

That billboard is an art piece.  Someone had photograph the person, edit them onto the background, make and stylize the text, and come up with some creative headings to catch people’s attention.  Now that doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with drawing and painting, but there is an article on “Graphic Design Degree Hub” called “Must I Draw Well to Be a Graphic Designer?”.  This article says “You will be required to draw basic sketches in order to share your ideas” though you do not have to be an expert.  

Let’s say that the graphic designer had to do little to no drawing to create the billboard.  They still had to sketch out what the business wanted for their advertisement. Beginning sketches are a big part of Graphic Design.  You don’t have to create a masterpiece, you just have to be able to make a general template. That’s where drawing can help you in a real art career.

Now, the background to the billboard is a blue swirl.  Pretend that it was just a solid blue but the graphic designer painted the swirl on using the paint tool to give it make the effect.  The drawing and blending of the paint is something that can be done digitally and traditionally. It’s good to get a feel of real paint so that it can help you decide how to paint your digital canvas.  Even if you’re an interior designer or graphic designer, these so-called unnecessary skills like drawing and painting can be very useful.

Art Can Be Good After All!

Art and Science combined from Pexels

Art isn’t just childish doodling, art can be the study of languages, literature, writing, and other things we all have done in English class!  It can also be music, graphic design, theater and drama, and almost all of technology.

Imagine a world without artists!  culinary is considered an art! We would just have to go back to farming.  There wouldn’t be any directors or actors of any kind that can film and/or animate movies.  There wouldn’t be any music artists. There wouldn’t be books or study of languages. Worst of all, though, there would be fewer ways to get away from the stress of life and calm your mind.

What some people don’t understand is there is art to science as well!  There’s an art in pretty much everything! Professor of Biology and Neuroscience says, “Science = art. They are the same thing.  Both science and art are human attempts to understand and describe the world around us” in an article on “Forbes” called Why Art And Science Are More Closely Related Than You Think.

Art Helps To Build Creativity!

If you look up Creativity, you’ll see a bunch of synonyms like inventiveness.  Isn’t inventing apart of science? That’s why art credits are required in schools, to help boost creativity.  Then there’s innovation, originality, enterprise, initiative, and resourcefulness. Those all seem like pretty good qualities to have to succeed in our society.  Their all apart of creativity, therefore, they’re closely related to arts.

Another anonymous writer on “Debate.org” told people that if we didn’t have any art, “the world would be an extremely dreary place to live in, where no one could express themselves or show their imagination or creativity”.  [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]There’s more to art than just the lead or paint on the paper[/perfectpullquote]

Art Helps You Problem Solve!

Problem-solving is a way of life.  Nobody is going to grow up and be successful without having to figure stuff out using their knowledge, creativity, and originality.  A writer on “Debate.org” confirms this and says, “Art isn’t meant to save lives, but it can develop critical problem solving”. [perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Art isn’t meant to save lives, but it can develop critical problem solving”[/perfectpullquote]

A good way to practice this is to make art different from everyone else.  On top of that, making art simply isn’t just drawing lines, shading, and coloring, though they are key factors obviously. Making art means you have to consider things like proportions and the style you’re wanting to do.  Then you got to figure out how you’re going to do it, and when you do, you may have to figure out another way since it may not work.

Take pottery for example, first, you have to figure out how much clay you’re going to throw.  You have to take into account that during the centering and shaping process, you’ll shed clay.  Then, you have to make the chunk of clay into an interesting shape. You have to plan your entire piece ahead.  When you trim, you have to know if you’re making a design from there, or whether you’re going to carve a design, or make a pattern with glaze, or even draw a design on after it’s fired. This all takes critical thinking and can actually be useful later on.  You’ll get good at planning ahead.

Art Also Helps Relieve Stress!

Yes, drawing, painting, pottery, graphic design, or even just doodling can relieve stress.  There isn’t a lot of advanced scientific explanations for this. It could just simply “take your mind off of what’s stressing you”, says Elizabeth Scott, author of How To Relieve Stress With Art Therapy from “verywellmind”.  

It has been proven that there is a certain state of mind called “flow”.  This is like a meditative-like state that helps clear your mind so that you can better tackle what is bothering you.  Overall, It really just helps you to detach yourself from the reality of your problems and helps you reset. You can then deal with the problem better.

Relaxing Art from Pexels by JTMultiMidia

Artistry is a real job.  There are so many different types of art that can give a person a living.  Yes, you will have to work hard, but think! What are some jobs out there that would make you a living that doesn’t require hard work?  Art is no different! If you have fun making kind of art, then do it! We should all have jobs that we enjoy.

Featured image by MaxPixels