9781422274842

CHAPTER 1

THE LIFE OF AN ARTIST

THE MYTH OF THE STARVING ARTIST The starving artist is a well-known character in world culture. They’re the person who sacrifices material needs such as food or shelter in order to live a life dedicated to art. This isn’t just a myth. Dylan Thomas, for example, a Welsh poet who became very famous during his lifetime and published many successful books, intentionally chose a life of poverty (being extremely poor). This might seem like a strange choice, but author Virginia Nicholson writes that “such people were not only choosing art, they were choosing the life of the artist. Art offered them a different way of living, one that they believed more than compensated [made up for something unpleasant] for the loss of comfort and respectability.” Choosing a life of poverty can be a very powerful artistic statement. However, the starving artist is not always “starving” by choice. Some artists have had to

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