Recently, I listened to a business podcast episode discussing a book about money called, Money, A Love Story, by Kate Northrup. Fascinated by the concept of flipping the script on my ideas about money, I downloaded the free workbook the internet and started to journal with the questions in mind. I haven't read this book yet (or any book about money because, euuw...) but Northrup's 60-page workbook quickly got my attention with the first set of questions.
I grew up with grandparents who lived firsthand through the Great Depression and I firmly recieved from them a scarcity mindset. Money doesn't grow on trees. Money is the root of all evil. Nothing comes easy. And the whole yada yada yada about being a starving artist. People mean well when they tell you not to go into art. But their advice has more to do with their thoughts about their own lost dreams and anxiety and it has zilch to do with you. I just think they've not considered that it's more of a crime to see creative potential wasted. The Money workbook ask you to examine these beliefs and where they've come from so that you can really see why you believe in them and to begin to understand that these ideas don't serve you.
Because defining what is of value to you is the real wealth. Value is where money comes from. But I'm skipping ahead...
The exercise that really got me thinking was the question of "what do you consider "riches" or "wealth" to be?" If you're an artist like me who's lived on a shoestring budget and has saved a ton each year by learning and doing her own plumbing, electric, carpentry, hardscaping, roofing, tiling, sewing, and a little small engine repair, then you know that your wealth is accruing in your skill sets. It was awesome to be reminded that I'm not at all dependent on having a specific job in an industry. As a human with the ability to work (a real blessing for sure), I can hang out a shingle and do quite a number of things besides art to feed and shelter myself. When the bottom dropped out of the illustration markets in which I was working in March of 2020, I knew I could pivot hard into selling my ceramics on Etsy and be ok, but I really could have done any number of things.
We artists beat ourselves up for not being able to make a living at our art. We get depressed when we're not making as much money as we need to live solely on our art. But I'm telling you that's okay. That you're doing *any* artistic endeavor at all is success--- the success is in the doing. And in an ever-increasingly capitalist industrial world, making art from one's own hands is a radical and subversive act. And I will again assert from an earlier post that the longer you make your art, those ripples in the pond are ever-expanding and all of that effort comes back to you eventually in the form of some kind of value.
So, okay, gentle art gnomes, take a deep breath and know it's all going to work out because you create value through your abilities and skills and this is what you can offer. When you count your riches this way, you'll see that you're wealthy beyond compare.