Oh no... Duffy gets on her bike in Diet Coke spot

You say successful when I think you mean 'commercially successful'; that the distinction is not at the front of your mind says something about how thoroughly you have taken advertising's warped values to heart.

Will, of course what I'm saying sounds horribly cynical and commercial. However, you'd be surprised by how many young artists also see being commercially successful as highly desirable and a mark of simply 'success' within itself, after all the two are inextricably entwined.

It honestly pains me to see so many talented people whether they be musicians, painters, sculptors, whatever, get sweet fa for their efforts while agents, producers, and dealers coin it in. Who would you rather benefits financially from your efforts as an artist, yourself in your own lifetime or rich collectors/dealers in a hundred plus years from now? Now to me that's truly cynical and says far more about the nature of commerce than it does about art.

I do know that many of my friends who also went to art school are now teaching part-time, still painting/sculpting when spare time allows, still trying to get into the well-known galleries, and generally struggling a bit. And still very aware of the fact that without major exposure their audience will mostly be their mates and a handful of art enthusiasts. As artists they, quite naturally, want as many people as possible to be exposed to their work and the best way to do that within the art establishment is to get into the big galleries, if they can achieve that then media coverage and commanding bigger prices go hand in glove.

Suffering for your art can be hopelessly romantic at best and unnecessarily soul-destroying at worst.