《藝術維生》Art as a career

　　再深體會，以藝術維生確是難事。阿愚很努力，除了睡覺，幾乎就是工作，日夜如是，但都一段日子了，回報卻十分少。

　　最難受的，不是作品沒有人欣賞，而是當別人將你看成藝術工作者（不是自認的），便會有意無意地「利用」你，因為有些人以為，藝術不講求利益回報；所以找人設計東西，又要便宜，甚至免費，最好不要找設計師，而是藝術人（或者學生）。

　　在創作人來說，即使是設計師，對藝術故然有夢想，但生活迫人，有時只好妥協。說到藝術風氣，我有時會覺得香港越變越好，好推廣化，另類的商業；可是，也漸漸明白，這是藝術工作者的無奈，若藝術品不好好地推廣，便繼續捱窮，但推銷得多，又有人說違背了藝術，再說，藝術人的心都不好過。

　　香港的藝術空間真是少，不是政府沒有推廣，確實是文化因素。若講求金錢利益是種本土文化，那麼藝術人講錢，是否正體現文化，實踐本土藝術呢？

It is hard to pursue art as a lifelong career. Ah Yu is a hardworking person, she works day and night in the studio, yet, she finds that there is not much in return as she hopes.

The most frustrating thing is apart from nobody appreciate your work, when the others see that you as an artist, who works for no profit, somehow they will deliberately or unintentionally use you. Therefore, if you need someone to help in design something, you should not have asked a professional designer, but bear in mind that, an artist or a design student are the best options, with low cost or even without paying a buck.

From a producer’s point of view, sometimes even a designer need to compromise in order to make a living by setting his/her dreams aside. For the art environment, I think Hong Kong actually is improving with its promotional characteristics, another type of business. To be frank, there’s no alternative for artists. On one hand, if they do not promote their products, they will continue their poor lives, on the other hand, they may feel bad of walking the other way round if they have promoted too much.

It seems that the space for art in Hong Kong is so limited. Perhaps it is the cultural factor, not about whether our government is doing enough promotion or not. If local culture is about money making as the first priority, having artists going this way, can we say that they are just working out and promoting local culture?