the term 'Starving Artist'
I detest it because it's an excuse for your own poverty. No one attaches any passion to starving doctors, lawyers, stock brokers, or factory workers (what with the recession and all we got a shit load of them around here). Even more reason to detest the term:
"You're mixing business and art, the two do NOT coincide. Ever hear the term "starving artist?" This is due to the depreciation of art. And...what the hell point were you trying to make anyway?"
Because Di Vinci, Michaelangelo, and practically all the great Renaissance artists didn't sell their great works to the Medici and Pope right? Because, Michaelangelo painted the Sistine chapel from the good of his heart right?
Not to mention all the people out there in the world that would pay $12 million on a propped up shark carcass. And art doesn't come in brands! I just watched a short segment on tv where a professor of business maintained a lot of rich people purchase art based on famous Art Dealers and Critics that praise them. Hell, you can buy contemporary art in communist China for thousands these days. Of course selling one great work doesn't mean you'll ward off starvation. But consider this, you gotta be paying for your supplies somewhere, if you can afford supplies, and the food to eat, guess what, you aren't starving. So unless you get fired from your day job and people really don't like your work that much, you aren't a starving artist.
"You're mixing business and art, the two do NOT coincide. Ever hear the term "starving artist?" This is due to the depreciation of art. And...what the hell point were you trying to make anyway?"
Because Di Vinci, Michaelangelo, and practically all the great Renaissance artists didn't sell their great works to the Medici and Pope right? Because, Michaelangelo painted the Sistine chapel from the good of his heart right?
Not to mention all the people out there in the world that would pay $12 million on a propped up shark carcass. And art doesn't come in brands! I just watched a short segment on tv where a professor of business maintained a lot of rich people purchase art based on famous Art Dealers and Critics that praise them. Hell, you can buy contemporary art in communist China for thousands these days. Of course selling one great work doesn't mean you'll ward off starvation. But consider this, you gotta be paying for your supplies somewhere, if you can afford supplies, and the food to eat, guess what, you aren't starving. So unless you get fired from your day job and people really don't like your work that much, you aren't a starving artist.
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I'm starving because I have no food in the fridge .....I have money though. 
oh come off it. Michelangelo and LEONARDO (he's only da vinci if you're bloody dan brown) lived hundreds of years ago in a different society. Artists really do make shit for money these days.
yeah, one or two will find some stupid dadaist shit and manage to sell it and make art even worse
but you're a fool if you think that's the rule and not the exception.
but you're a fool if you think that's the rule and not the exception.
Some of them love it so much that they do it for free, I guess.
And if you're good enough at it, that all you want to do is the artwork but you don't want the money then I guess that just makes you crazy.
And if you're good enough at it, that all you want to do is the artwork but you don't want the money then I guess that just makes you crazy.
Doesn't hurt to have a day job. And if you have a day job and can afford Timmies in the morning, you are not a starving artist.
I think the insane 'I don't want a day job, money is evil BLAH BLAH BLAH'
actually deserve it more then they ones who cn afford food and just BAW anyways.
actually deserve it more then they ones who cn afford food and just BAW anyways.
I find it more annoying when people tell me I'm going to be a starving artist, and ignore any fact about graphic designers/illustrators/artists and how much they make entry level.
I will laugh in their face when I start my career.
I will laugh in their face when I start my career.
Me too. My mom even suggested I become a fashion designer. And I searched up their wages, Graphic designers make about 1k more than fashion designers per year.
I wish I named this thread $starvingartist now.
Da Vinci. 
I never could remember how to spell his name.
Same with Pollacks. Keep on spelling it as Pollocks.
Same with Pollacks. Keep on spelling it as Pollocks.
Poleaxe. 
I like the ever-so-cliched-and-inaccurate romanticism attached to being a "starving artist". I just would never want to be one. I like stability.It's just as passionate wanting to do your passion for a living in my opinion as starving yourself.
I want to do my passion for a living. DOES THAT MEAN I COULD BE A STARVING TRANSLATOR TOO? 
OH MY GOD! THE HORRORS
A ton of artists are crap at marketing, yet are so passionate about art they can't imagine doing anything else. I know from personal experience that the starvingartist stereotype is definitely grounded in reality.
Well I have to say, though I admire passion, I suggest they become a buddhist monk or something. I'm tired of people saying to be a true artist you gotta be starving and those people who hold their chest up high with snobby-ness when they say they'd rather paint than eat. There is a boundry between passion and not knowing your priorities.
I've never known any artists who claimed they had to be starving, but I have known quite a few who were too unbalanced to do anything else.
Seconded 
And how many artists do you think get the acclaim of said critics and dealers? 
Not a lot. Doesn't stop you from flipping burgers.