For a lot of artists, unfortunately it's not. They need to have a job to support their art habit/hobby.
More recent examples abound in the music industry, in which you can be wildly successful, yet make less than what amounts to minimum wage.[2]
The importance of art to understanding human condition cannot be understated. Yet, for whatever reason, societies by and large does not reward the people who produce it financially. There's certainly a lot wrong with our education system, but blaming it for the starving artist syndrome is unfair.