The $34 a bottle question?

Lifestyle... that's what people are looking for in today's media-sodden world.

It is a commonly held media myth that artists have lifestyles. Phooey! Balderdash! Ask any Illustrator  if they have a 'lifestyle' and they're lucky if they don't consider yogurt & a coffee in the park to be 'dining out'.  Maybe they even have adapted to cut their own hair. (like I do)

Granted, it may well be that some 'fine arts' artists really do have Lifestyles.   I've read articles about them.  But it's professions like Winemakers who have cornered the market on 'Lifestyle'.  

Winemakers get cover stories in the Sunday supplements. Contrarily, Carrot farmers never get write ups in the Sunday supplements.  And Onion farmers never make it to afternoon talk shows.

Now ask yourselves.... do Illustrators have a lifestyle? lol!

Yeah, we sure do! We have all nighters to beat insane deadlines... juggling 3 different jobs with crazy deadlines... or being totally out of work and certain you'll never work again.  We get to beg for our jobs and beg for our checks... and tomorrow is never a certainty.  That's the illustrator's lifestyle.

Unlike Winemakers, the Illustrator does not live with photogenic plein-aire tables set with translucent glasses of wine in our idyllic rural winery.

We have dingy studios, dusty and filled with lamps, piles of old books, junk of all sorts... with light boxes and ink stained fingers and squinty eyeglasses and tape stuck to our elbows. That's what I know about illustrator's lifestyles.

But never-mind all that.

The really big question I ponder is this: Who are all these amazingly accomplished people who casually buy those $34 bottles of wine at the supermarket??

If I knew the answer to this question, I would be a new person entirely, I'm sure. But as it is, I'm afraid I'm of the stalwart $8.50 a litre Barefoot Merlot sort... and seemingly stuck there for life.

So much for the Illustrator's Lifestyle and the accompanying wine selection!


lol!