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My parents are 110% supportive. however they are supportive in different ways.

My dad is all about connection and exposure. ie. I recently told him I was going to just chill and have fun cosplaying for the first time with my friends (which is a huge step because I'm neglectful to do it) at an anime convention. He tells me I should have a table there instead of screwing around doing that. While I do agree with him immensely, sometimes you just need to chill out and not think about my career, passion, etc. besides, I usually attend conventions for the soul purpose of connecting with other artists and industry professionals anyway. and he knows that. He was being silly about it because cosplay is something I've never done. ^^;

My mom is all about the education and money. She's been immensely supportive getting me through school. Hell, she even praised me and offered some advice for one of my final projects I had ready to go for this and next week. however she does question some of the stuff I do. and why I thought of this or that. challenging questions. nothing unsupportive. but she does have an awkward side to her support. I sometimes tell her how I will be setting up a shop online of my stuff, and do commissions to pull in extra money. and then she thinks of art as the "starving artist /poor man's, if it's not a blue/white collar high schooler part time job, or you're graduated and a professional in the industry I will not get any money at all" sort of thing. as if she doubts my skills. I've never shown her my income I make from it from time to time on my art, so she has this weird vision about it.
I was having a conversation with my friend one night, walking across campus, in which I said to him "There will always be a group of people out there that thinks what you do is worthless." We go to a primarily engineer-dominated University, so we're entirely used to the "good luck flipping burgers" comments. But if you take those same students and throw them into a city like Chicago or San Francisco, and they're completely lost. The tables have turned! biggrin People are products of their environments, and it's hard to deviate from a non-artistic environment into more creative endeavors without some sort of backlash.

Personally, my parents don't outwardly care about any career path I choose. They "know" that I'll be successful in any direction I go; and with some extent I believe that as well. To them, money is always an issue. Recognition is an issue. They want to be able to point to the next Pixar film and go "My son helped make that!" Or say "Yeah, my son gets $90,000 a year starting pay." But over the years I've become more and more interested in Buddhism, and I've lost any notion of forsaking my life in favor of money. Money is just an arbitrary number. We made it up. It's worth nothing. But art?! Art is worth something. It's expressive, it's cultural, it's an intellectual commentary.

So in response to your mother's notion of art being a waste of time, I would ask "a waste of whose time?" Perhaps learning to view the world as it truly is, and expressing that in your own way is a waste of time to her. Some people live their life to earn money; others live it to grow, personally. I prefer the latter.

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My dad doesn't like me pursuing art as a hobby or whatever else. He doesn't really think I am as good as my mother and would prefer I focus my efforts elsewhere.

My mom is usually supportive of whatever I decide to do. She is an artist of the fine art variety with a fair amount of skill. However, she never was able to make a career of it. A good portion of it is because she doesn't like marketing herself as is needed to hold gallery shows and to go get her work out there. She also doesn't want to get involved with the real money making applications of art like portraiture or working for a company.

So when I showed an interst in art, it was always made clear that I wouldn't be able to make a career of it. I'm now not so sure that it's the same for more commercial artists or for ones working in animation or doing freelance work. I think you can make money as an artist, it may not be a stellar amount and it's nothing to write home about, but it can provide a relatively stable income if done well. That said, being an artist full time for me is probably not in the cards. I'm currently pursuing other more "tried and tested" career options.

What I'd eventually like to do is to build a stable environment for myself so that I can afford to do art as a hobby and a passion without worrying too much about my finances.

Original Lunatic



My whole family supports me all the way. I think they knew from an early age that I was too stupid to do anything else destined to do something with art.

My mom went to school for interior design and my dad went to school for photojournalism, but they actually haven't ever worked in those fields and hardly ever talk about it. Being creative is kind of in my blood, so they understand.

Rainbow Werewolf

purplelightpika
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I think no matter what I did my parents would have the same reaction. My dad is more pushy to make it a job that I make a lot of money.


And for some reason I don't think they would satisfy with our current achievement...
My dad is pretty much happy so long as I get B's. I'm the one that never seems satisfied. I tend to get half A's half B's, though I'm stressing that this time I may not make that many A's.

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my family pushes me to got into art as a career. i come from a family of art and music peoiple so its always been pushed on me but i prefer to only do it as a hobby
I've just begun learning to draw recently, so nobody knows about my secret graphic novel dreams yet. /glazed over eyes

But I've been a writer for several years. One of my parents is generally like, "Oh, of course you're a wreck because you're always doing your writing stuff or whatever that junk is," and then as soon as I win something or get some kind of recognition she's all
"THAT'S MY GIRL OMG I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE BRILLIANT."

I guess with some people, that's just how it is, no matter what kind of artist you are. I used to be butthurt about it but now I just let it motivate me to get better.

Desirable Lunatic

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My mum went from disliking it, to loving it and pretending that she has always supported me.

My father have always supported me.But my father's family have a lot of artists in it, so I'm nothing special because of what I do.

frantic spark's Senpai

Angelic Unicorn

Not so much now days. Dad resents me buying supplies.

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My daddy doesn't care as long as I don't live in a cardboard box. My mom is very supportive and offers suggestions. At first she thought I'd end up broke but I explained that design and illustration isn't the same thing as selling paintings for $5 in the mall so she doesn't mind now.
My parents actively discouraged me. So now I'm a professional cartoonist.

They were persistent. Just not very effective.

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On a scale of 1-10, it'd probably be the -10.
Quote:
So in response to your mother's notion of art being a waste of time, I would ask "a waste of whose time?" Perhaps learning to view the world as it truly is, and expressing that in your own way is a waste of time to her. Some people live their life to earn money; others live it to grow, personally. I prefer the latter.


Yeah, true. I have to understand that not all people think what I think. I can't really blame my mom that she sees money more important than my "unrealistic" dream. But I can actually work out one way that she can actually agree with me someday.
God-the-almighty
Not so much now days. Dad resents me buying supplies.


Oh dear.
EternalFlame
On a scale of 1-10, it'd probably be the -10.


Which means "very not supportive"? How do you deal with them then?

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