In this day and age the arts are one of the most freeing career paths a person can choose, from drawing and painting to animation and sculpture the field is vast and full of potential. Discuss why people devlue the art of learning these subjects, often expect work to be done for free, and then celebrate the art as beloved. Do we value the work and undervalue the artist? Is this ideal changing? Discuss how this mindset and belief that art is not of valur affects the "little" guy while allowing large main stream corporations to become highly monetarily successful.
The devaluing of art is constantly present in creative communities and it's a vicious cycle. The mentality is that "the smaller you are (reputation-wise) the less you can charge" otherwise "you'd be bigger," and "you have to work for it." And this thought process stifles one's ability TO grow while in a constant lack of proper support. Rather than pay a small creator for the time and effort they put into their work, people flock to brand merchandise or cheap widely distributed prints. What it boils down to is a lack of understanding on the part of the consumer for the market: they try to equivocate the price of the products while completely unaware of the resources spent to make them. "Why pay $20 for this when I can get it for $5 somewhere else." The need to make money in any form, forces small creators to accept low wages or to be paid in "exposure" because it's that or nothing, which in turn justifies the devaluing of their and others' art in future. So the cycle continues. Since art is so accessible, and there are so many artists out there, it's hard to stop this from happening. I'd love if the article included ideas on how to combat this mentality and educate consumers on where their money is going when supporting small creators. – Slaidey7 years ago
I also should have added that I do think the attitude toward smaller creators is shifting in some regard. Mentioning Patreon and sites which help support creators is relevant to the topic and could be worth mentioning :) – Slaidey7 years ago