I am 66 and have been a professional artist and craftsperson for 44 years. I assure you, when the orders and shows and classes are there, I work damn hard and always have. I make a living at it, too and all my wholesale accounts make a profit off the merchandise they buy.
Very little of the arts money goes to artists. When our state had $350k/yr available, back in the 80s, the art museum, the symphony and the opera in Milwaukee and Madison each got $100k grants. The remaining money was divvied between some private teaching programs, some small performance dance troupes, a prestigious juried craft show and one craftsman, one fine artist and one writer. I was the only working artist on the peer review committee.
Don’t take out your angst on the wrong people. There is an inticate web of middlemen in the arts world and it takes years to get the point where you can work without them. This is who is being gifted with tax monies.....and all of them are very comfortable and earning 6-figure salaries, for which they do less than those bankers the critters were scourging in front of the cameras.
I am not used to wine in the middle of the day. I mean no personal offense. I am venting against this looting.
Craftsperson? Was that out of habit, or are you giving in to the liberal PC language reformation?
BTW, all working men and women who have legitimate jobs producing products or services that free men are willing to buy with their own money are both artists and craftsmen.
This goes for the guy who makes intricate sculptures to the guy who flips hamburgers. If you take pride in your work and people are willing to pay you to do it, then you are an artist and a craftsman.
I am an attorney and I consider myself both an artisan and a craftsman. I am also a musician, but in that department I am but a simple artist as no one has seen fit to pay me for my efforts.