Deep Devotion is its Own Reward
Since I was a boy I’ve been intrigued by the artist’s lifestyle. For me the draw was the sheer bravery of it all. I’ve always respected those who cast aside societal norms and forge their own paths to live a life with freedom and satisfaction.
Many of these brave souls wear tattered clothes and have sacrificed creature comforts and much of the materialism that mainstream society worships for their art. Despite what most people would think, a majority of these people aren’t tortured burnouts. The truth is, most artists who I’ve met who’ve chosen this path are highly intelligent, at peace, and seem happier than the average person who works a nine-to-five job. They blissfully march to the beat of a different drummer, almost as though they live in an alternate reality.
Today I found a YouTube channel created by Joshua Charow, who’s documenting the last of the original New York City loft artists of the early 1970’s for his new book, Loft Law: The Last of New York City's Original Artist Lofts.
The early 70’s were a particularly dismal and gritty point in NYC’s history. Reminiscent of what we’re seeing glimpses of today, the city was suffering from over a decade of steep decline, it was desolate, lawless, and crime-ridden. The difference is back in those days housing was cheap, many times free in abandoned buildings, for those who wanted to do the work of renovating a loft apartment.
Artists of all kinds took advantage of this unique opportunity so they could reduce their living expenses to near zero and devote their life to creating their art. Many of them survived only by helping each other. It’s hard to believe after all these years there are still a few of them left. Through their examples, they’ve lived lives that can teach future generations volumes so I think it’s very important that it’s all being documented.
I had always romanticized this kind of life but never had the guts to directly experience it myself. When I finally began to live the life of a writer in 2017, at age forty-six, I had already had saved a nest egg from working various day jobs for thirty years and practicing my art in my spare time. I often wonder how different my life would be now if I would have started earlier and just devoted my entire life to writing from the get go.
When I left my old life I noticed there was an almost instant shift in priorities. My life felt more full and satisfying. I stopped dressing up. Many of the trivial, materialistic things that I craved and coveted became significantly less important. My art, writing, almost instantly rushed in to satisfy the constant void and endless hunger for more “stuff” that society teaches us is the normal way to live.
I didn’t sacrifice nearly as much as these people did, but feel blessed to have experienced this kind of freedom and deep contentment in my life. There is so much more to this life than just money and stuff, as we’re taught. The day we stop prioritizing and worshipping materialistic things is the day our lives truly begin. Yes, deep devotion is its own reward.
When we begin to face our own mortality we finally understand that we can’t take material things with us but I believe contentment is the thing that really matters and is the thing that likely travels with us to that great beyond.
Be well and make the most of this day. Thank you for reading!
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Our society has failed to appreciate the sacrifice deep within that those artist played underground just to stay within their passion
A nine to five job worker is just drying up day by day.
Yes, it's like giving away little bits of yourself each hour for money. You don't realize this at first but as you get older you do.
Wow, that is pretty impressive. I wonder how they were able to hold onto those places for so long without the building owners trying to take them away and turn them into multiple units. They must have ironclad purchase agreements. My friend is kind of the same way with starting his own business. He waited so long and how he will be the first to tell you that he should have started sooner. The things he was worried about (namely health insurance) ended up not being as big of a deal as he thought it would be.
I'm not sure how these people have managed to stay so long. I think some of them were just grandfathered in because of rent control policies and such. Health insurance was one of the main reasons I waiting so long. Before the Affordable Care Act was passed the only option was paying for private insurance and it was astronomically expensive. Now I don't pay much more than I did when I had my day job and it's actually way better coverage.
Good for them, I just think it's amazing knowing how much demand there is for real estate in NYC and what lengths people will go to when they see potential dollar signs. My buddy ended up getting remarried and his new wife had insurance. That was the big deal for him. Then he found out how successful he could be and it ended up not being that big of a deal. He has his own employees now and he makes sure he provides them with a very good health insurance package.
Yeah, the market is crazy there. Some landlords have done some unbelievable things to get longterm renters out of rent controlled apartments. I'm happy to hear about your friend's success! I think it's more of a mental barrier for most people when it comes to entrepreneurship. That was the case for me, I thought I needed the safety net of having an employer.
That makes a lot of sense. I am glad you finally took the dive!
Life does not require much to survive, common people spend most of their money on luxuries. An intelligent person like an artist, poet, writer thinks that money and happiness are separate things and it is possible to live a beautiful life with less money.
Life does not require much to survive...
That is so true, it's us who allow ourselves to be tricked into believing we need all of the "extras" to be happy.
Since I entered university, because of my career, I started to surround myself with artists. Many of them don't exist today: some because they have died and others because the economic situation forced them to reinvent themselves. That is a word that is fashionable in Venezuela. While reading your text I remembered a very talented artist friend of mine, Celeste, who started her master's degree with me and was a very brilliant artist. I remember that after class we would go to museums, bars, the cinema and Celeste was always full of ideas. She had a promising future in painting. The big problem: Celeste had to take some substances to be well, cheerful and to work. I remember the last time I saw her she looked like a broken doll. She asked me for a coffee and a cigarette. She told me that she stopped painting in the pandemic. In some countries, to say that you are an artist is synonymous with ‘you are going to starve to death’. They don't see it as a profitable profession. However, I pray that the life of an artist can be glorious, but as they are very ‘visceral’, they are exposed to fall to the bottom rung, to the basement of this universe. I embrace you, Eric.
I'm sorry to hear about your friend, Celeste! A creative life can be difficult too. Here in America there's also that stereotype of the "starving artist". Creativity isn't valued as much here as it would be in some other parts of the world. What I love when I go to Montreal is people are genuinely interested in art and writing there. These artists featured in the videos were the ones who found success. Today there SO much talent out there that you really have to be lucky and inventive to make a success of it. Most successful artists I know today have several different revenue streams, some of them have nothing to do with art. I hope you have a wonderful weekend my friend!
It's true that our lives can be full without a lot of unnecessary stuff that we will likely only use on rare occasions. Connections, experiences, and who we become are really all we can take with us.
Those New York lofts must cost a fortune now?!?!
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I think one of those lofts were 6,000sq ft! That would probably go for $15k-$20k per month I would imagine. Thanks for your support!
A lot to learn from this write-up, more isn't always better or more satisfying but following one's dream brings contentment.
This reminds me of the movie "In Time" which showcases the importance of time as a commodity, although deeply connected to money. And yet, the movie is deep once you pull back the layers and observe how the director plays with different elements. Great post. The more we do what we love and live according to our inner compass, the more balanced and joyful our lives are.
I remember that film! It was a great one. Thank you Krisz!
@ronthroop is one of those artists living the Good life, although not in a NYC loft. Here's one of the first of his recent posts. Have you read him yet? I'm a big fan.
I'm in love with Carmen Cicero.
I lived as a dancer in NYC starting in the late 70's. I visited some of these lofts. They were phenomenal. Back when many artists could support themselves without day jobs.
Thanks for tagging him, he has a new follower! It's amazing to me how many people have been on here for years that I"ve never crossed paths with. I'm going to share his profile with my artist friend (@luckyfellow) too.
When I was writing this post I was wondering if you had met any of these artists! Cicero's story was inspiring, as was the other woman's. I liked his art better. I can't even imagine how much fun it was to be young in the city during that time.
Sharing on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/djbravo121741/status/1791261486381220315
In the same way, there are many people who are not in the world at this time, but we still like their poetry, we can learn a lot from them, and many of their words, when we are young, we can read them. We are seeing the truth in the way we see in the world that every human being communicates with us with his meaning, otherwise he is very busy and happy in his world, so these are all the things we heard and learned from poetry.
It's a story of bravery, and these people are heroes worthy of being celebrated.
We are on the same page with slight deviation. If at all I agree to the social customs and traditions that should be informed by reasons, logical deliberations and life-experiences. It can not be a rigid code imposed upon me just because it has been so for generations.
Writing is fully ingrained in your soul, Sir. And I must say you are a thorough writer who can arouse the dormant minds of the readers at large, they are thought-provoking.
Could not agree anymore.
True. Contentment translates to Gratitude.
Thank you.
🙏🙏🙏
Thank you my friend!
🙏🙏🙏
In this life, feeling happy is of course harder than having wealth. I think you are very happy to be a writer. God bless you.
We must seek out happiness, it's all around us if we look hard enough. God bless you too my friend!
Thank you @ericvancewalton for this inspiring story. Truly doing what we love and desire gives us inner satisfaction that Illuminates our lives and make us radiate with joy even when money isn't much.
https://twitter.com/lee19389/status/1791482475295682832
#hive #posh
Things change a lot with the passage of time and it is true that we learn a lot because of poetry and we also remember our college and university life when we also loved these poems and We also wanted to be like those who were artists
#hive #posh
https://x.com/MunirTahir67705/status/1791557359677956245
I love this.
I have seen a few documentaries along the way and a few were about artists like these. Mostly probably on PBS, but I would not know the names of the artists by now.
I never entertained that this lifestyle would be an option for me. I married too young and did not pursue art as other things took up my time.... and besides.... who did that ??? ha... Of course being older and looking back, I too wonder about how my life may have turned out if I had actually started early enough to have time to become really good at something.
I still enjoy doing what I do, whatever that is at the moment, so it does add joy to my life.
I will have to check out the youtube vid.
I really connected with this too. It stirred up old memories of what I thought my life might be like when I was in my twenties. Once I found these videos and watched them the YouTube algorithm started sending me all kinds of them.
My life has turned out similarly to yours, most of it was doing my art (writing) in my spare time until recently. Life happened and survival took precedence. It's worked out okay, better than I could have imagined. I'm thinking a lot about Act 2 lately. There isn't much of a future in writing books anymore. Every time I think about it the idea that comes to mind is just traveling and vlogging about my experiences.
Thank you. I am going to read further about the loft artists!
You're welcome. The YouTube series is so good (and a little sad at the same time because it's almost the end of an era). I plan on buying his book when it's back in stock. I came so close to moving to NYC in 1995 in search of this kind of life. I often wonder how different things would have turned out if I did. I remember finding a small apartment in Brooklyn but it was almost $1,000/month and that just seemed so out of reach at the time.
Now you’d have to have 3 roommates to afford that:)
There are so many place not NYC to take up art these days. We can connect without the middlemen:)
Most of the time a whole lot of people are finding ways to stay happy not knowing that their true happiness lies deep within them
Super-inspiring listening to these artists Eric! I so admire people who follow their dreams despite what society expects of them.
My late uncle wanted to dance, ballet at that, much against the wishes of my very conservative Oupa. He went to study ballet at the Cape Town Ballet School, survived on Pronutro and water, but ended up in a successful dancing career that took him to many parts of the world. He lived a fascinating life. I have all his photo albums, and only recently started sifting through his, Mom's, and our photos, thanks to your Memoir Mondays.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
I believe things happen for a reason, and when they're meant to, but one does wonder how our lives would have been if we followed our dreams from a young age, and not done what was the so-called norm!
I'm so glad you found your niche, you've been an inspiration for many through your writing!
Thank you Lizelle! Your uncle sounded like a very brave and interesting man. He probably had ten times the amount of life experience, satisfaction, and joy than most people do. There's no greater joy than finding success on your own terms with a clear conscience.
He truly lived a fascinating life, was more like an older brother, was Mom's youngest brother.
He was such an inspiration to everyone he knew