Living as an artist is a wide topic that could lead to many discussions and approaches, in general artists are not as demanded as scientists or other more functional professions, however, some artists can achieve higher incomes or popularity than the more demanded jobs. Artist’s expectations are normally to make a living with the art they create, without any limitations in creativity or schedule, but to make living completely as a freelance can be a difficult task, especially in a city like London, where prices in general are quite high and there are strict expenses due every month.
Therefore, artist’s life can be more manageable if working with their art in cooperation with companies or businesses. These employers will normally not allow the artist to have full freedom in their creations, moreover, they will create as demanded by the company. This option might not be as enjoyable as a being self-employed renowned artist, but still allows the artist to make a living in a related field, and being able to keep going with their own practice in their free time. From my point of view, and as we have seen from guest lecturers and from other professional’s advice, an artist will require, in many instances, a side job; these jobs are many times in education, sound engineering or customer service roles, but is not rare to see artists which have employments in services or unrelated fields. In this case, the artist practice could represent some extra income in the best cases, bring their day job to a part-time or reduced schedule contract.
As mentioned at the beginning, this is a wide topic from which there is a lot written and discussed, but I wouldn’t say that a graduate artist career should be more complicated than a career in other fields, and I have been informed of cases where students in other more “employable” subjects like science, law or engineering also struggle to find permanent and well paid roles. In conclusion, I would say that it is important for this industry to stay positive, and being optimistic as an individual to manage your opportunities in a realistic way, and try to find a balance between your artistic life and being able to afford the costs of living.