Artists need to know the rich. My brother is a technically superb artist, but has achieved artistic death by becoming the chair of an art department. He took me to visit a art school classmate. She flings paint at 10' square canvases with her back to them. He studio is a warehouse in the now-nice part of town. He said the main difference was she made a point of focusing on the social aspects of art early in her career. Her 'art' is a reasonable approximation of the Pacific Garbage Patch, but she knows people and can convince them her slop on canvas will demonstrate their advanced art appreciation. And their b-school friends are non the wiser, so it doesn't matter. She gets paid, my brother doesn't. Sure, he has a pension. She's in half the major collections in southwest. And the in-joke that gets her into those collections is the insecurity of the b-school kids.