As I was drawing caricatures at a company Christmas party in Baytown yesterday, a mother and her 6 year old son sat down in the hot seat for me to draw. Much of the time, during these moments, I'll exchange small talk with the customer and so many of the conversations veer toward the parent mentioning how talented their child is at drawing. Frankly speaking, it happens so often I hardly recognize it but this one was a little different.
This lady mentioned how so many have told her to steer her kids in directions other than art because there isn't much of a future in it and I bridled a bit at that statement and, without going into it very much I mentioned how that is a general perception among non-artists. Most people are unqualified to make such a statement just as I am not qualified to make any presumption about any vocation I know nothing about, like nuclear engineering for example.
People can succeed or fail in anything and, in fact, do. There are successful doctors and mediocre ones. There are successful writers and mediocre ones. The same is true in any career: carpenters, welders, lawyers, educators, firefighters, garbage collectors, janitors, insurance salesmen, window washers. You can name any profession and you'll find success as well as failure. The same is true with art.
I advised her that if her son is interested in art then encourage him to commit to it and ignore everyone else.
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