Make Art Make Money Make Art

”What is a human being? Complex to the point of absurdity, a whole person is both greedy and generous. It is foolish to think we can’t be both artists and entrepreneurs, especially when Henson was so wildly successful in both categories.

Since he was in college, Jim Henson was a natural capitalist. He owned a printmaking business and made commercials for lunchmeats. In the 1970s, he became a merchandizing millionaire and made Hollywood movies. By 1987, he had shows on all three major networks plus HBO and PBS. … Of course, Henson was not just another Trump. Believe the beard.

[…]

When Henson joined on to the experimental PBS show Sesame Street in 1968, he was underpaid for his services creating Big Bird and Oscar. Yet he spent his free nights in his basement, shooting stop-motion films that taught kids to count. If you watch these counting films, the spirit of Henson’s gift shines through. I think any struggling artist today could count Henson among their ilk. He had all the makings of a tragic starving artist. The only difference between him and us is that he made peace with money. He found a way to make art and money dance.”                                                                                            from Elizabeth Hyde Stevens’ book:  “Make Art Make Money”

I just have to share this article with you from Maria Popova’s magnificent Brain Pickings website, to which I subscribe and recently started sending a small monthly fee to support her excellent work, and from where the above quote is taken.

BRAIN PICKINGS:

Maria tells us’ Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn’t know you were interested in — until you are.’

I love that!  And it’s true. I find her work quite captivating and thought you might too, if you’re not already a fan.

This week, I really enjoyed the piece on Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets.  Well, actually, it’s a piece about a book called ‘Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career’ written by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens.  In it, Stevens sets out to debunk the toxic myth that is the assumption that tells us art is necessarily bad if commercially successful, and commercial success necessarily unattainable if the art is any good, through the life and legacy of the beloved Muppeteer.

Click on THIS link to take you through to the article.

REMEMBERING THE MUPPETS:

http://youtu.be/9THwnQg-vEw