kinomatika:

Everybody’s seen those little comics where there’s a caricature of the artist depicted doing incredible pieces and another character will come by and say ‘wow how do you do it!’ and the artist character will say something to the effect of “I haven’t slept in 72 hours and I’m starving, sent help” all with a grin or welcoming smile. And then the audience character looks noticeably disturbed/put off.

As an artist, those comics resonate with me deeply. I do often go without sleep when I should be getting rest, I do go for long stretches of time without remembering to eat or drink water, and most of the time, I do feel like I’m in desperate need of help. It’s nice to be able to laugh at your situation once in a while, but it’s still important to remember that this is unfortunately a rampant problem among artists and it seems to be getting worse.

We love what we do for our job, don’t get me wrong. I would never do anything else. And a lot of the time, when I tell people that I’m an independent artist, they go “Aw I’m so jealous! I wish I could sit at home and draw all day!” and it takes every fiber of my being not to rip their little fantasy apart.

Sure you get to stay at home and draw all day, but there are other things that happen that we don’t usually talk about.

You lose track of time. You forget what day it is very easily. You miss out on social interaction because you impose deadlines on yourself. You forget to stop and make time for meals or self-care like showering or changing your clothes. Housework takes a far, far back burner to everything else, and this is often why you’ll see artists’ livingspaces or workspaces cluttered and full of trash and detritus.

That’s not funny. It’s real, and it’s not funny.

I am lucky enough to live with someone else who’s also a working artist, so we tend to bounce notifications off of one another like “time for a shower” or “do the dishes” or “take the trash out” but there are plenty of artists who don’t have that luxury.

If you know an artist, please check in on them now and again. Ask them if they’ve eaten today, or if they’ve slept recently. If it’s within your scope of ability, ask if there is anything you can do to help them out. 

The majority of us who work from home end up lapsing into this depressive sort of fog that results from having no life structure outside of drawing drawing drawing and more drawing. It can be dangerous. It can lead to physical illness, as it has multiple times for me. 

The problem is that artists work extraordinarily hard and no one sees it as hard work except for us. Not even our clients, most of the time. (Don’t worry, that doesn’t necessarily make you a bad client.) We abuse our bodies and starve ourselves to get just a little more work done and mentally block out everything that matters except for our jobs, and when we finally have a break, real life comes crashing in and it often gets overwhelming. We sit down for hours at a time (sometimes for 20hrs or more in a day) and that takes a toll on us, physically. 

I’m not saying that there aren’t artists out there that can balance their work and self care and home care and social lives, but there are far more of us who can’t. 

So if you know an artist, let them know you care and you want them to care for themselves too.