Maybe I am missing something because it seems like you are comparing apples and oranges, or maybe apples and triangles. I don't know if you wanted a response or if you were just expressing yourself, but I am going to go out on a limb here and respond so you will know that you are being heard, even if you are not being understood.
I don't see any necessary connection between creative genius and being a millionaire. For example, is Bill Gates a creative genius, or was he just at the right place at the right time? I think he had to have a certain kind of risk-taking personality, and had to be future-oriented. I am a little vague about his story of creating a computer empire on a shoestring in his garage, but he could have spent the money on a flashy car and the time on watching cartoons or playing with model trains.
I think that the artistic kind of creative genius is often not given any sort of financial recognition. And often paintings, for example, are worth more after the artist is gone because there obviously won't be any more coming to flood the market. Also, few people are able to recognize artistic genius - I most certainly am not. If I found a Van Gogh in my attic, and Van Gogh was unknown, I think (I hope) I would like the painting but I certainly couldn't say, "This is a masterwork and worth X amount of money." So it seems to take a while for enough people to be exposed to an artist's work and agree together (perhaps tentatively at first) that it is good, or very good, or valuable. So if one is painting or doing sculpture or writing music or literature, it would seem that the odds are slim that it would be even noticed by the kind of influential people whose approval might lead to a high price tag.
I hope that if you are an artist you are financially able to have the time you want for your art. I would hate to think that you have to spend 40 hours a week at a mind-numbing job and then do laundry and wash the car and clean the floors until you are too exhausted to paint.
I do think that the computer might be useful to you as a way to disseminate your work. Perhaps if you create an online gallery, and see that it is listed in various search engines, influential people might see your work and that might be an avenue toward having people appreciate it. Also you might be able to enter paintings or sculpture in art shows, even if you just begin with something like a county fair or a show at a library near your home. And you could enter your writing in contests. I am not sure where you would find those contests, or how you distinguish genuine constests from those that ask you to purchase a book, and everybody who agrees to purchase the book "wins" the honor of having their work published. A reference librarian ought to be able to help with that.
Also publishing some of your work online might be worth considering.
The bottom line, I suppose, is that relatively few people seem able to make a living with art. I personally wonder how anyone who paints or does something else (other than writing which can be copied so easily) can bear to ever part with their creations. I should think it would be gratifying that someone wants to buy a work of art but hard to see it go.
I believe there are other benefits to producing art besides financial compensation. Oh, dear, I'm afraid that sounds trite. But I personally feel that you should take whatever is in you and let it out in whatever form it comes out - poetry, sculpture, oil painting, and so on, and strive only to be more true to your heart, and then try to find a way to share what you have made with others, and hope that some people will appreciate what you have done.
Not everyone will appreciate the same things - let's just look at the way people love or hate opera. So obviously not everyone will appreciate your art. And who would pay a million dollars for a Van Gogh if they didn't know that it was "worth" a million dollars? And is there a way to evaluate art? I know some people believe they can, art appraisers certainly believe it, but I don't necessarily agree with that.
Anyway, I am sure I did not answer your questions, and I can only hope I am making some sense to you, but I did hear what you said and I am trying to respond. I wish you the time, space, tools, energy, and clarity to create what is inside your heart.
Maggie
Posted on Jul 17, 2001, 12:22 PM from IP address 207.212.95.209