Are you allergic to hearing dumb tropes about artists?

Tropes. There are tons of them. I reckon I’ve heard most.

Artists can’t handle money. Artists are high maintenance. Artists are lazy, dole-bludging, dope-smoking….blah, blah, blah.

Let me give you some facts to rebut the nay-sayers and scorners.

“With 194,000 Australians employed in the creative arts, the sector is a larger employer than finance (190,600), accommodation (97,500), electricity supply (65,000) or coal mining (49,600). The creative arts also contribute $14.7 billion to GDP each year”.

(Source the Australian Institute research paper ‘Polling Lockdown and the Arts’. May 2020).

The ink is barely dry on that report. Read it again and memorise it.

Artists are focused, hard workers who meet deadlines and budgets. Not every artist is perfect - no other industry or community is faultless either.

We need to plain talk more about our vast accomplishments and accomplishments as individuals, and an industry, rather than letting the occasional ABC journalist or bureaucrat do our talking for us.

Let’s start with erasing this one.

You are ‘JUST AN ARTIST.

KILL the ‘JUST’!

Steven Pressfield’s book ‘The War of Art’ said “Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every Being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got”.

Let’s fight the tendency to be apologetic.

It is a REAL job and you – yes, YOU - are contributing to the billions we deliver to the Gross Domestic Product. We need to stop uttering comments that belittle our competencies and contribution. “I’m not a good business person… I’m useless with technology/numbers/negotiation’…yadda yadda yadda.

Changing ingrained public attitudes grow from the ground up. It’s really evident with attitudes being challenged right now. It’s up to US.

Let’s erase a few tropes – one conversation at a time.

Photo: Moi in Le Marais.

---

Upcoming workshops