Craftsmanship and paying the bills

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside." Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine

Wanna be an artist when you grow up? Can you balance productivity, sales, and professional development? You can spend a lot of hours trying to sell your art, at the expense of production. You can spend your time and energy producing, but if you aren't growing, you're just churning out copies in the world's least efficient version of an assembly line. Every work is a new exploration. You got the eye, the coordination, the vision---you have to honor it.

Art is now being widely produced by computers, monkeys, elephants, and artists who just keep producing the same old thing because it's what sells and they have to keep up their rent or validate their hours in the studio. The world doesn't give much of a nod to integrating personal growth and one's profession, or to craftsmanship.

Today, may I work without regard to time or money, and may I see the value in a dose of forced asceticism . . .