Does the “life of the artist” are worth it? An author tries to answer the question

Does live the life of an artist is worth the sacrifice?

“Writing life,” says author Stephanie Elizondo Griest, “is like the ultimate hazing experience, because she tests you at all levels. You are continuously faced with rejection – and how will you pay the bills? ”

NOW a teacher At the University of Caroline du Nord in Chapel Hill, Elizondo Griest was released with a new book, “Art Oull Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Jys and Torments of A Creative Life”.

In this document, she goes to 10 nations and interviews writers, artists and artists from around the world who have devoted their lives to creative activities. From Mexico to Qatar, from Rwanda to New Zealand, Elizondo Griest poses the question: is the pursuit of art worth it?

Elizondo Griest draws from his own experience by pursuing a writer’s career. Although she was working constantly, she had no stable work, not 401 (K) and no health insurance. And even if she traveled all over the world, she did not have a house: she was an educated adult woman who sometimes returned with her parents and slept in her childhood room.

She did not even have her own cutlery until she was at the start of the forties.

“I did not decide to live this life, but it is my fate, a spell that I chose, but not one without serious consequences that become more obvious for me as I have aged,” said Elizondo Griest in an interview with NBC News. “` `Art above all ‘is not a guide, it is more a prayer if you have already done this … There is hope, there is a reason and you are not alone.

Elizondo Griest, 51, is Corpus Christi, Texas. She is the author of several books, including “Around the block: my life in Moscow, Beijing and Havana” (2004) “Mexican” (2008) and “All angels and saints” (2017). She wrote for The New York Times And The Washington Postand its prices include a Margolis Prize For reports on social justice and a Southwest Book Prize. She wanted to write and travel and she did this – to drive thousands of kilometers across the United States, for example, to write about the history of the nation when she worked for an educational website.

The life of the “art monk”

Elizondo Ceiling Readers of the concept of “art monk”, an idea that came to her when she spent time in a Catholic prayer house in southern Texas. The residents of the house had taken wishes of poverty, chastity and obedience. “And I had done something quite similar by being an artist. I had rejected my fertility to continue my writing projects, ”she recalls.

“But once arrived in the forties, I realized that there were consequences of this. So I decided that if I had to continue on this ascetic path, I had to find other singers in the dark,” she wrote.

For “Art Oull Everything”, Elizondo Griest spent a decade of interviewing 70 artists, including built -up ballerina Wendy Whelan, successful author Sandra Cisneros, Leading Rwandan Playerreau I hope Azada, acclaimed Indian dancer Surupa Sen and others. Along the way, she danced in a stomach in Havana, traveled medieval manuscripts in Iceland and wandered in the parliament building in Romania.

Publishers Weekly rented “Art Above Everything” as “inspiring” and “a powerful testimony to the value of continuing his passion”.

Elizondo Griest made the decision to focus on female artists because women are under-represented and undervalued through disciplines In the art world. It was not until the 1970s that women evaluated a mention in visual art history, she said, and women come regularly Major arts organizations. The current political climate, in which the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion, or Dei, have been governmentcould strengthen existing gender disparities.

“Creative life is never easy. It is not a simple path … But it is the one that has huge rewards and allows you to achieve a vision,” said Sheryl Oring to NBC News. Based in Philadelphia And one of the artists interviewed by Elizondo Greist, Oring is known for her Project “I want to say”, In which she traverses the country disguised as secretary from the 1960s and hits people’s messages to the president on a vintage typewriter.

Oing has stressed that certain funding on which artists are traditionally based – like grants Of the national endowment for the arts – has been cut or risks being eliminated.

“Many organizations, non -profit organizations and museums present their very existence,” said Oring. “There is a simultaneous concern about showing art that could be considered controversial. It is therefore a really difficult period for artists, but it makes our work more important. ”

The difficulty of making a living through the arts is shared by all sexes. Orlando Rios, an actor based in Los Angeles who appeared in “Selena: The Series” and “CSI: Vegas”, said that his business “may be like a roller coaster – but you find how to work and support. It is not a profession with a linear path, and you have to accept this.”

If people only give themselves a few years to succeed as a interpreter, “said Rios, it will probably not happen, because it requires time and patience.

Because Rios also works as a vocal actor, he is concerned about the Growing use of artificial intelligence technology in the entertainment industry. “But you just have to stick to it, know that you are there for the long term,” he said.

As Cisneros Said Elizondo Griest: “It takes a lot of courage to go against society’s expectations, gender expectations, cultural expectations. We have to invent our own Camino (road). It is a political choice. “

Live the most “creative life”

For Elizondo Griest, his dedication to writing finally helped her to cross some of the greatest challenges of his life – including the pandemic, the death of his father and a catastrophic disease.

“There was a time when I started to rethink my life, when I did not know if I was going to continue to live a life, because of this diagnosis (cancer),” she recalls. “I realized that, thank God, I had chosen this path, because all that I ever wanted to do was to travel the world and write on this subject, and I had done it … I had no regrets.”

It was the art that allowed Elizondo Griest to persevere through crises. Notes anchored it during chemotherapy and covored locking. “The sacrifices that I made to be an artist caused most of the volatility that I have known in the 1920s and 30s,” she writes, “it is therefore wild that art has become my main self-paid technique during the turbulence of my neighborhoods.”

Now having undertaken a National book visitShe believes that art can help people live through fear, trauma and uncertainty.

“Something really deep, beautiful and powerful in art is that he really tells you, all we have is that moment,” said Elizondo Griest. “So, if art is the place where you feel most fulfilled, then that’s how you have to fill it, live your most creative life and make it glorious.”

“And yes,” she adds, “today I have cutlery!”