Journey of A Young Artist

I’m in a position where I might have to give up on freelance art and go get a full time job soon, which means losing the freedom to work on my books, comics, and other projects. If one tenth of my tumblr followers pledged $1 a month to my Patreon, I wouldn’t have to do this. So yeah, this is a good idea.

If one tenth of my tumblr followers pledged $1 a month to my Patreon, I’d be able to afford to live in my own place, rather than being stuck in a terrible situation… which would mean that I’d actually be able to dedicate more time and space to music.

A third of my followers sending me 4 bucks a month would immediately allow me to make content full-time. For those who can afford to make them, little decisions like that transform content creators’ lives and the very face of the internet for the better. Every lil bit helps. Don’t underestimate your own power. 

On the one hand I want to add to the chorus saying that $1 from even a relatively small proportion of my followers not already backing me would make a big difference in my ability to survive but I also feel like it’s worth noting that endlessly circulating small quantities of money in limited social circles benefits, primarily, paypal? It’s a very nice thought and I’m not going to deny that it’s helpful but like Look I’m sorry but This isn’t a fucking revolution and applying the word “revolution” to “budgeting a meager $10 for impoverished independent creators” is kind of ridiculous idealistic thinking? It’s a stopgap measure that again is not nothing but also does not represent a fundamental change in the vast forces that mean even apparently quite successful creators all have day jobs, barring the occasional nonrepresentative exception. So yes, please, if you can spare $1, send it my way because I am literally making one half the federal poverty line. But also please please do not think that this is a “revolution” and, in itself, sufficient action to support creators. For that we need radical collective action to do things like drastically increase minimum wages, socialized healthcare… hell, maybe we should be figuring out some way to start unionizing Patreon creators. I don’t even know what that would look like but like that’s way way closer to what you could call a revolution than this, which amounts to, in material terms, a voluntary regressive tax. I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me, basically (or that I guess could? theoretically? feed me? Since only a pretty small proportion of my followers on all social media actually contribute to my Patreon?) but I also am bitterly aware right now of how much the Internet currently depends on massively underpaid creative labor and I don’t want to lose sight of what kind of action is required to change that reality. Please help me. But please also help yourselves, and all of us.