The big question: do you work for them or yourself?

The time I spend on my art is important to me. Just me.

And still, when I talk to other artists, I hear the same sentence again and again:

“I don’t know if this is worth it. Nobody is buying. So I don’t know if I should keep doing it.”

It always makes me pause.

Because why do we paint in the first place?

When I ask that question, many people answer honestly:

“I paint because I want to make money.”

And yes—of course. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to make a living doing what you love, doing what you studied for, doing what you’ve spent years learning.

But the truth is:

Not everybody who studied art will hang in a museum.
Not everybody who creates will be discovered.
Not every artist will become famous.

Does that mean you should stop?

Does it mean there is nothing to be gained from making your art?

Or is the question underneath all of this something else:

Would you still paint if nobody clapped?

Because the moment “will they like it?” becomes the reason to paint, the work changes.

Then everything you make has to justify itself.
Be archival.
Be “good enough.”
Be worth showing.

And that pressure doesn’t make the work stronger.

It makes the work safer.

So why do you paint?

I made a short 2-minute video about this question and why I paint…

So why do you paint?

Reply to me email and let me know….