Below is a link to a wonderfully-written article about the struggle to live a creative life in a material world and the conflict it often creates. While written specifically from a woman’s perspective, the struggle she describes is one that nearly all but the few and very fortunate people who make their livings in the creative arts can relate to, no matter their gender. - A Life Designed

I’m For Sale

Creative ambition is lovely, but what happens when you need real money?

BY GENEVIEVE SMITH for ELLE – April 9, 2013

When I was 26, my then roommate was a great scavenger of furniture. One day, she came home with a daybed frame: a twin-size wooden box with only three legs, which is likely why someone had left it on a curb in the first place. The frame sat propped against our dining room wall for the next year, until I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband), and she let us take it. My husband made a fourth leg out of salvaged wood, and we found a cushion that more or less fit the frame in the “as is” section of IKEA. The back was constructed from a mattress pad rolled up and stuffed into a homemade pillowcase, and the whole ensemble was eventually covered with some black corduroy fabric that we bought for $10. All told, I think we spent about $40 on the “couch.” That was six years ago. At the time, I thought of our jury-rigged furniture as a temporary arrangement, a way station on the path to adulthood. Now it serves as a reminder of how slow and grueling the road to financial security can be.

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