Making a living as an artist

Can an artist make a living from arts?

Making a living as an artist (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

Yer Za Vue (Ntxawm Vwj) used to work with Walt Disney but now she is teaching art classes to art professionals or students who want to study arts at the Pacific College of Arts as well as teaching her own art school class to over 30 students ranging from beginners to intermediate or art professionals students who want to study about arts.

Ms. Vue says she teaches about art background, composition and how to design art, how to use color or how to paint, how to handle the black and whites values.

A Hmong girl in Hmong costume-The Pearl, oil on canvas (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

Besides, Yer Za Vue says that she also does her painting, and also display her art with Focus on the Figure' at the Arts on the Boulevard Gallery in Vancouver, Washington. So Ms. Vue decides to paint four different types of her painting including a Hmong girl which is her niece in Hmong costume along with other paintings. The purpose of the figurative art exhibition at this art gallery is to display artists' paintings and other types of arts for two months each year.

A Hmong women in Hmong costume-The Green Maiden, oil on canvas (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

Ms. Vue says that arts can come in many different forms, but when we talk about painting there are different forms such as arts from observation, feeling or emotional arts, and illustration. So it depends  on which art styles you prefer either realistic arts which is the painting exactly like the real person or items you want to paint or to draw, whereas you can also do oil painting with different designs that are not a real art forms i.e, landscaping, fine arts, figurative arts, drawing, either doing animals, people, towns or cities etc.,

Apart from painting, there are still many other types of arts like performing arts, visual arts, sculpture, ceramics,  architecture, sculpture, literature, music, dance, theater, photography, and films.

A figurative art of an elegant young women, oil on board (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

In terms of an art career, she says that it is very hard to say.

There is no guaranteed that when someone study art that person will end up being a successful artist, but if you are really into it, there are ways to make it into a career either be teaching art, working in art animation studio, or painting that could become a source that generates income for you. So there is a prospective pathway into art career. But the most important point is you have to stay true to yourself and follow your heart, if you are good at it, give it a go, believe in yourself and don't listen to naysayers.

A young women in blue hat, oil on board (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

So if you want to do art, Yer Za Vue says, the first and most important point is you have to really really love it whether you good at it or not it doesn't matter, you can find an art teacher or an art school that will teach you and you can learn from her/him or from that school, or if after you study and realize that that art classes or art forms are not what you really after, finding an art master is just at your fingertips nowadays, so you can fulfill your fullest "individual artistic path".

A variety form of figurative art display on the Nov 1st -Dec 28th 2019 at the Art on the Boulevard gallery in Vancouver, Washington, USA (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

So how do you know that art is for you? The most important point, says Yer Za Vue, is you have to stay true to yourself and follow your heart, as ask yourself is art really for you? If you are good at it, give it a go, believe in yourself and don't listen to naysayers. If you put your heart into it anything is possible.

Please do not forget to share your know-how or knowledge back to your communities says Yer Za Vue, so your skills live on. That is very very significant for me as I act my age.

Figurative arts by Emily Schultz-McNeil, Joanne Shellan, Carrie Vielle and Yer Za Vue at the back of a postcard to display at the Art on the Boulevard gallery (Yer Za Vue) Source: Yer Za Vue

Yer Za Vue says at the moment not a lot of Hmong are paying much attention to arts, except that they may have their loved ones who are into this field only, so there is still a very limited awareness about arts, but hopefully one-day Hmong communities will pay more attention to arts.

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