I owe I owe....

I owe I owe....how many of you start your morning that way? I even like - love, really - my job, but if I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd be outta here!

I don't keep up with many blogs, just the occasional one occasionally (LOL) but one "source" I do keep up with with some regularity is Lampwork, Etc. It's basically a (duh!) lampwork artists forum, but it also has its share of bead artists and just looky-loos. The topic that's coming up with increasing frequency is the difficulty of staying gainfully employed (I owe, I owe) by making and selling beads. There are a few "names" who I know can do it with apparent ease, but, frankly, most of those that I know personally (and I'm speaking here of taking classes from them and occasional correspondence) live very (very) simple lives. At one extreme I'd say are Sage and Tom Holland. At the time I took from them - about a year ago - they were in the process of building their house. And, when I say "building their house" I mean with their own two hands. No electricity, and as I recall no running water. They would sell a bead (through word-of-mouth, because they have no website and no Internet), then turn the money around to buy lumber. The whole three days at Molly's Sage was collecting shrimp shells, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc. to take back with her to Arkansas to use to compost their substantial (as in several acres) garden. Tom was working on a way to fire up a kiln without electricity. To them, even buying glass - the primary tool of their trade - is a luxury. Kim Affleck works full time at a "real" job, and makes beads at night. She uses her weekends and vacations to travel and teach. A couple of others make fair money, but have a husband (or wife, as the case may be) who contributes substantially. I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this, but I guess this state of affairs bothers me or I wouldn't feel compelled to write about it. Yes, there are lazy "artists" just like there are lazy anybodies (I could name you several of both ilks but I won't). Whine, complain, but do nothing about it. But, there are those artists who WORK and work HARD every day but get little in return. I guess it's easy to say, "oh, well, they get to stay at home all day, they don't spend money on gas, on clothes, etc. etc." But the reality increasingly seems to be that they don't have money to spend on groceries or health insurance, either. When did America (and is it the world? - I really don't know) become a place where art, or really any kind of beauty is just plain unaffordable? When was the last time you bought fresh flowers "just because?" Last time you went to the symphony, the ballet, the opera?