I loved reading this so much. It's an issue I talk about a lot with my very talented musician friend here, whose day job is coding. (I sent this to them, and they are who I interviewed in my first podcast episode.) My artist son is dealing with the same soul-crushing battle between bringing his joyful brilliance into the light while still needing to make enough to live.
Also, I saw Maier's photography here in Porto several months ago at a temporary exhibit at a museum and was very moved by it, and by the exhibit in general, which was on the intersection of creative expression, madness, and socioeconomic exclusion.
Many of us have had our talents squandered laboring to survive under capitalism, and the world is poorer for it.
Will look at the link. And thank you for your thoughts. I hope that living in Portugal will make these decisions easier for your son. I remember my ‘20s as a difficult and confusing period, trying to balance all this in what really is a very cruel culture. My parents were both investment bankers. They really didn’t get it. I needed to eat, but I really think I needed to write just as much. So hard.
My son's art commissions have been taking off again here recently, and so he hopes for enough financial stability to be able to move back out on his own (well, with his partner) in the coming months. They moved back in with us earlier this year. His art business, which he started at age 15, was doing very well until the pandemic hit. He's only 20 and he dropped out of high school, with my blessing, his sophomore year. (American public school is a death sentence for too many trans kids, and I wanted mine to stay alive, so school had to go.) But he got his GED ahead of the graduation of his peers and has just been trying to find his way in a world people his age were poorly prepared to have to live in. None of us were prepared for this world, of course, but it's so especially difficult for these young people, and especially the creative, free-spirited ones. Many of them feel like they are failures, because they aren't as independent by the age their parents were independent. I think we need to reassure them this isn't their fault and not stand in their way as they redefine what "success" looks like, what meaning and purpose are, and find every possible way to support the dreamers, the artists, writers, songwriters, and performers. The world needs them more than ever.
This was such a great blog and I love the voiceover. If you will allow me it would be so cool to add some of your voiceover clips as an audio installation in Chisel Studios!
Absolutely! Be my guest, I am wondering if I should do more voiceovers. I have to see the words to understand anything, but maybe others prefer to hear. What do you think?
Yes I prefer to hear! It makes the blog more interesting for me! So if you decide to stick with it, then great 🌷 My husband and I listened to the voiceover last night together, so you may inevitably reach a larger audience by recording the voiceovers
I loved reading this so much. It's an issue I talk about a lot with my very talented musician friend here, whose day job is coding. (I sent this to them, and they are who I interviewed in my first podcast episode.) My artist son is dealing with the same soul-crushing battle between bringing his joyful brilliance into the light while still needing to make enough to live.
Also, I saw Maier's photography here in Porto several months ago at a temporary exhibit at a museum and was very moved by it, and by the exhibit in general, which was on the intersection of creative expression, madness, and socioeconomic exclusion.
Many of us have had our talents squandered laboring to survive under capitalism, and the world is poorer for it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jdgoulet/p/a-stream-of-our-own?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=10bxpq
Will look at the link. And thank you for your thoughts. I hope that living in Portugal will make these decisions easier for your son. I remember my ‘20s as a difficult and confusing period, trying to balance all this in what really is a very cruel culture. My parents were both investment bankers. They really didn’t get it. I needed to eat, but I really think I needed to write just as much. So hard.
My son's art commissions have been taking off again here recently, and so he hopes for enough financial stability to be able to move back out on his own (well, with his partner) in the coming months. They moved back in with us earlier this year. His art business, which he started at age 15, was doing very well until the pandemic hit. He's only 20 and he dropped out of high school, with my blessing, his sophomore year. (American public school is a death sentence for too many trans kids, and I wanted mine to stay alive, so school had to go.) But he got his GED ahead of the graduation of his peers and has just been trying to find his way in a world people his age were poorly prepared to have to live in. None of us were prepared for this world, of course, but it's so especially difficult for these young people, and especially the creative, free-spirited ones. Many of them feel like they are failures, because they aren't as independent by the age their parents were independent. I think we need to reassure them this isn't their fault and not stand in their way as they redefine what "success" looks like, what meaning and purpose are, and find every possible way to support the dreamers, the artists, writers, songwriters, and performers. The world needs them more than ever.
This was such a great blog and I love the voiceover. If you will allow me it would be so cool to add some of your voiceover clips as an audio installation in Chisel Studios!
Absolutely! Be my guest, I am wondering if I should do more voiceovers. I have to see the words to understand anything, but maybe others prefer to hear. What do you think?
Yes I prefer to hear! It makes the blog more interesting for me! So if you decide to stick with it, then great 🌷 My husband and I listened to the voiceover last night together, so you may inevitably reach a larger audience by recording the voiceovers
🌹