I don’t think that art is some rarified thing that people only do if they can afford a studio, or worse, are content to transform their living quarters into an unventilated space for oil painting. Art making isn’t only for students, or for people willing to live in punishing circumstances.

It is possible to create something meaningful and beautiful and have a decent life. It doesn’t preclude great art, although perhaps it does mean that works need to become smaller, or that we need to have a second job. Vermeer was an innkeeper in 17th Century Holland, and no one now argues that his work was third rate because it didn’t provide his sole source of funds.