“The first piece of advice I have for people if they want to be a crazy artist like me is that companies are there to exploit you, and to extract as much labor out of you as possible while paying you as little money as possible. Always treat companies with intense cynicism and try to exploit them back as much as you can. The big mistake that will fuck you over in life is being a team player, because you’ll waste years and years of your life until you wake up one day having made some company a lot of money and having made yourself shit. That’s what happened to my mom. She never made much money because she was one of those people who said, “I’m going to work hard and be talented, and then people will recognize my value and reward me!” No, actually, they will just take your hard work and talent to make money for themselves and discard you when you’re no longer useful. So be very cynical.”
There’s always been this weird dichotomy between business and art. Too often artists languish in obscurity or as a ‘secondary’ hobby.
I think artists who understand business, even just a little, are able to become successful artists. The business side is often to ‘square’ and over looked. Molly Crabapple gets it and remains a talented independent artist.
Bonus: The Great Discontent has some great interviews. You’d be hip to keep up with them.