Suffer for your art? Hogwash.
So, apparently, the economic apocalypse has an upside. According to David Ross, former director of the Whitney Museum, every cloud has a silver lining: “difficult times bring out the best in the best artists. When the economy falters, there can be a remarkable growth of seriousness in art.”
That’s right, you molly-coddled sissies. Serious art is borne of suffering. If you’re not behind in your rent, you’re not trying hard enough. You have something other than absinth and cabbage in your malfunctioning fridge? You’ve sold out. Wake up and smell the chicory grounds.
And there was I, foolishly believing that the romantic myth of Bohemia had been debunked once and for all. Sorry, my artistic friends. I’ve been selling you a bum steer. Looks like ‘real’ artists must suffer excruciating pain, emotional torment and existential angst after all, lest your art become insipid, vapid and irrelevant. Carry on.*
*Disclaimer: acknowledging that sarcasm does not always transmit successfully via the interwebs, I hereby declare that most, if not all, of the aforementioned is said with tongue firmly lodged in cheek. Other than the quote. Which is real.
Art matters 
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