Dear Babs, 

I graduated with an MFA in painting two years ago and while I have a decent record of solo and group shows under my belt, I don’t really make any money from sales of my work. I have a stable job as a bartender that pays the bills, and I’m all right building my practice slowly. My problem is that my parents are on my case about how I’m not getting a financial return from my degree, which they in part helped pay for. Recently my dad suggested I start painting portraits of their neighbors’ dogs because I’d be “putting my education to good use.” How do I get my parents to stop badgering me and let me be the artist I want to be?
—Misunderstood in Minneapolis

Dear Misunderstood: Congrats on your steadfast dedication to your artistic growth; we all know it’s not an easy path to follow. It’s hard for people outside the art world to understand the financially “counterproductive” choices some artists make in service of long-term career integrity. Conventional thinking would have you make money any way you can by painting any way you can, but that’s just not how to make an art career worthy of serious attention.

It’s time for you to sit your parents down and give them a little lesson in what an art practice actually means. They wouldn’t tell a young lawyer to stop practicing civil rights law because chasing ambulances is just easier and more profitable, would they?

Suggest a family get-together where you watch a few Art21 episodes curated by you with a focus on artists who worked hard to maintain their integrity in the face of financial and familial pressures. Help them learn about how long it took Louise Bourgeois and John Baldessari to actually make a living off their work. Perhaps with a bit of education your parents might understand why it’s important for you to focus on the work you need to while not distracted by commissions for things that don’t further your long-term creative goals. Or you can always consider making some really messed-up pooch paintings of their neighbors’ pets. Who knows, it could be the start of a new, cathartic body of work.