That is not even the worst one.
There is a whole language artists have learned to translate in real time.
“I don’t know, you decide” until you decide, and suddenly they knew exactly what they wanted, and it was not that.
“Can you make it for free? It is just a small thing” as if seven years of learning how to make it look small and effortless did not cost anything.
“My friend does not really like it” a friend who was not in the room for a single conversation about what this piece was even trying to say. “Can you be more creative?” said with no more detail than that, like creativity is a knob I forgot to turn up.
“I need it today; is that possible” for something we both know took me weeks to get right the other times.
“Why is it so expensive?” next to “my cousin can do it for half,” as if the price was ever about hands moving a brush and not about everything those hands had to learn first.
None of it is said to hurt. Most people genuinely don’t know what they’re asking when they ask it.
But every one of those lines is a small reminder of how invisible the actual work behind art still is to most people the years, the failed attempts, the pieces that never made it out of the studio.
I keep making the work anyway. I just wanted someone else in this to know they’re not the only one hearing it.
Artists, what is the line you hear the most that still gets you every time?
