# Are there any artists you would like to ... just send them some money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468 "2015-12-14T23:38:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/1 "2015-12-14T23:38:18Z")
I think of this fairly often. There are so many artists whose work has given me so much pleasure and enjoyment over the years, I feel as if they deserve more than I’ve paid for their work. Particularly writers, but also musicians and some actors and directors. But, I haven’t done it. Some people I think this about (and some of them are dead, and very few of them are short of money AFAIK): George Carlin, CJ Cherryh, Arthur Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, Clint Eastwood, Johnny Carson, The Beatles, Roy Orbison, Carole King, Frederick Pohl, John Sanford, Bernard Cornwell, William Gibson, and I’m just starting to think it about Sarah Vowell. The list could get quite a but longer, but these are off the top of my head. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/2 "2015-12-15T00:22:24Z")
It does seem unfair that there are so many writers, composers, etc. who have provided me so much enjoyment and never gotten anything from me in return (because of their being dead). ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/3 "2015-12-15T02:09:14Z")
I agree that very few of them are short of mazoolah. I have, however, enjoyed the work of dozens of jazz musicians, and Mozart, who died poor, and wish I could have sent them some money. Some of the people on your list, though…John Lennon…Carole King…Stan Kubrick…Sarah Vowell…I could add Laura Nyro, Spain Rodriguez, George Sanders, Kate Beaton… Maybe I could just give them some head? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/4 "2015-12-15T10:51:20Z")
I want to send Bob Log III, money, all of my wife’s underwear, scotch, and an unlimited supply of boobs to dip in them. [It’s the Law, You Gotta Love It](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib95wYSHXCI) ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/5 "2015-12-15T13:16:14Z")
There is an artist [of any sort] sponsoring site called [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/) which allows you to contribute set amounts to artists to allow them to produce whatev er it is they do. I give $5 per month through Patreon to an artist whose work I like, and a range of similar contributions add up to a few hundred bucks from a fairly diverse group of people. Not enough for him to give up his day job, but enough to keep buying pens and paint. Others get money per image / comic book. Well-established artists like Amanda Palmer increasingly use this form of crowd sourcing. I occasionally feel guilty that my bootleg self-recorded cassette of Monty Python has lasted as long as it has, and that I have somehow robbed them of income. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/6 "2015-12-15T13:21:18Z")
Back in the day, when Napster was running wild and I didn’t yet realize why I was doing wrong, I was contacted by Roy Orbison’s surviving sister(?). I had downloaded a bunch of Orbison’s music. The threatening email made me look into the situation. I sent a heartfelt apology with an attached receipt for all the Orbison music I had just purchased. She accepted my apology. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/7 "2015-12-15T13:47:19Z")
Now I’m thinking of doing this for the first time, for real. Sarah Vowell is speaking at some school in Indiana in February. The lecture’s free and I think I’ll buzz down and catch it, and put a $20 bill in her hand personally. If she asks why, I’ll tell her that it’s less presumptuous than offering to take her out to dinner. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/8 "2015-12-15T14:45:51Z")
Lots of famous artists have as much money (and sex) as they could ever want. What artists really need is good mental health, and I can’t give them that. Sometimes I wish I could’ve told Cobain when he was alive how much we appreciated his music and most people had no problems with him retiring, we just wanted him to be happy. I thought his suicide was in part due to tensions with the music establishment and burnout. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/9 "2015-12-15T17:53:44Z")
My general feeling is that’s what they get paid for. But in 2006, I posted [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=380577) about actress Danielle DuClos: > [@Little Roles That Moved You Big](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-roles-that-moved-you-big/365370/1): > > Up late last night and watched _Midnight Run_ - hadn’t seen it since it was out in 198(8? 9?). But I was struck again with a reaction I remember having sixteen or so years ago… the great, albeit extremely brief, performance given by the girl who played DeNiro’s daughter. Skip tracer DeNiro has captured embezzling accountant Charles Grodin, and is trying to return him to LA to collect the bounty. Their journey is derailed by all sorts of problems, and DeNiro runs out of money near Chicago, where his ex-wife and daughter live; he hasn’t seen them in several years. But he’s forced into the embarrassing position of having to show up on his ex-wife’s doorstep and ask her to borrow money. They quickly end up yelling at each other, re-hashing old wounds. In the middle of this, they freeze as they realize the daughter, now an eighth-grader, is there. > > The ex gives DeNiro a little cash and lets him take her car. As he’s leaving, the daughter comes out and offers her dad another hundred, her babysitting money. DeNiro says he can’t take it. The girl tries to insist; he keeps refusing. And painted almost perfectly on her face is the aching desire to do something, make some connection with the father she hasn’t seen in years. But she doesn’t know how, and DeNiro’s character doesn’t know how either. > > That was it. Total screen time less then three minutes, I think. But DAMN. I don’t know who the little girl was, but she nailed that role. For whatever reason, DuClos (as I later discover her name was) did not set Hollywood on fire. I always thought, though, that she so perfectly captured that tiny moment on film and I always wanted to hand her a check for thousands of dollars and say, “You earned this for that.” ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/10 "2015-12-15T18:23:50Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Lots of famous artists have as much money (and sex) as they could ever want. What artists really need is good mental health, and I can’t give them that. Sometimes I wish I could’ve told Cobain when he was alive how much we appreciated his music and most people had no problems with him retiring, we just wanted him to be happy. I thought his suicide was in part due to tensions with the music establishment and burnout. Ya know, I have to heartily disagree with this. Lots of famous artists are relatively well adjusted, and lots of “normal” folks live comfortably and crazy until they meet bad ends. It’s more likely that you’ll toil in obscurity for your art than you will kill yourself directly or indirectly because you can’t deal with the pressures and adulation that success can bring. And as much as I’d like to bitch about the industry or Courtney Love, Kurt killed himself almost undoubtedly because he couldn’t deal with being Kurt. If he didn’t figure out how to deal with that, he was probably headed for an early grave, famous or not. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/11 "2015-12-15T19:06:02Z")
I don’t know if any of those people are on it, but check out [Patreon.com](http://Patreon.com). I support the guy who does the d20OGL site and Zach Wienersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic) each to the tune of a massive $3 per month. For example; > **[Zach Weinersmith | creating SMBC Comics and Books | Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith)** > > Become a patron of Zach Weinersmith today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators. 3278 patrons $6,776.11 per month of comics. Now I have no idea what their cut is, but that’s $81k/yr before fees for Zach. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/12 "2015-12-15T19:31:56Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Ya know, I have to heartily disagree with this. Lots of famous artists are relatively well adjusted, and lots of “normal” folks live comfortably and crazy until they meet bad ends. It’s more likely that you’ll toil in obscurity for your art than you will kill yourself directly or indirectly because you can’t deal with the pressures and adulation that success can bring. > > And as much as I’d like to bitch about the industry or Courtney Love, Kurt killed himself almost undoubtedly because he couldn’t deal with being Kurt. If he didn’t figure out how to deal with that, he was probably headed for an early grave, famous or not. As a whole, creative types have more mental health issues. > **[Creative people are more likely to suffer from mental illness, study claims](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11661332/Creative-people-are-more-likely-to-suffer-from-mental-illness.html)** > > Painters, musicians, writers and dancers are 25 per cent more likely to carry the gene variants than their non-creative peers, new research suggests > **[Over 60% Of Musicians Suffer From Mental Health Issues, According To One Study](https://metalinjection.net/news/metal-science/over-60-of-musicians-suffer-from-mental-health-issues-according-to-one-study)** > > Please- talk to someone! > **[The dark side of creativity: Depression + anxiety x madness = genius? | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/world/the-dark-side-of-creativity-vincent-van-gogh/)** > > Celebrated Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s life was fraught with anxiety and hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/13 "2015-12-15T19:44:12Z")
And psychological treatment is very pricey! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-artists-you-would-like-to-just-send-them-some-money/740468/14 "2015-12-16T00:50:59Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > As a whole, creative types have more mental health issues. > > [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11661332/Creative-people-are-more-likely-to-suffer-from-mental-illness.html](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11661332/Creative-people-are-more-likely-to-suffer-from-mental-illness.html) > > [http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/metal-science/over-60-of-musicians-suffer-from-mental-health-issues-according-to-one-study](http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/metal-science/over-60-of-musicians-suffer-from-mental-health-issues-according-to-one-study) > > [http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/world/the-dark-side-of-creativity-vincent-van-gogh/](http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/world/the-dark-side-of-creativity-vincent-van-gogh/) Ehhh, it’s more complex than that. Creative types are less likely to be typical, but don’t seem to be mentally ill more than others. [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-real-link-between-creativity-and-mental-illness/](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-real-link-between-creativity-and-mental-illness/) [https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creativity-explorations-in-art-literature-science-and-the-everyday/201503/creativity-and-mental](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creativity-explorations-in-art-literature-science-and-the-everyday/201503/creativity-and-mental) If you want to go further with this, open another thread. Otherwise, that’s the last I’ll say on the matter.