How artists make (or beg for) money
A conversation with Mason Currey
We put artists, especially those from the past, on a pedestal. Their works are great, sure, but their lives are… weird and messy and incredibly, deliciously human.
That’s a big undercurrent through my friend
’s work, including his newsletter and bestselling book, Daily Rituals.Mason’s new book focuses on the very human need to, you know, make money. Here’s an excerpt from our recent conversation in Whoa, Volume 1 about Baudelaire, the legendary French poet, that makes him feel very... relatable.
Alex Dobrenko—
So what are some of the things that are blowing your mind from research for this upcoming book?Mason Currey—
Refusal to compromise – that comes across a lot…An example is Baudelaire, the French poet. When he was a kid, his father died and his mother remarried. And when he was 21, he inherited a pretty good chunk of money from his father's estate. And he proceeded to blow it all. He was just living the 19th century Parisian dandy dream, writing poetry. And his mom and stepfather were horrified, so they took the money and put it under the control of an administrative trust, so he went from having all the money to having a small allowance that was being doled out to him. And instead of becoming responsible he then went into a ton of debt trying to maintain his lifestyle.There's this book of letters written to his mother railing against this condition. He's so desperate to get that money out of administrative control and back in his hands and he goes into all of these cycles and debt schemes. Like, he's not gonna stop writing poetry. He's gonna endlessly berate his mother via post and endlessly pay off one person to pay off the other. He's like, I'm a genius. I shouldn't have to worry about this shit.
And he was right. You know what I mean? He was a generational talent who wrote something that has lasted till this day. And yet he spends all his time worrying about running out of logs for the fire or switching rooms to avoid his creditors. And I don't know, there's just something about that struggle and the absurdity of it and the poignancy of it and the sort of exasperation, the kind of cosmic existential exasperation.
AD—
And it's so human. Like, I could see myself getting into all those situations. Whereas like when you say the name Baudelaire you think of this kind of God but no, this dude was just like dealing with his mom, you know?MC—
He was a huge mess and the letters are so great because he's trying to charm his mom… He's like sending her articles he wrote to be like, look mom, I did good. It's all those basic emotions just being put in a jar and shaken up.And it's the opposite of art in a way where you can't fudge it. You can't make it up. Art is fiction, but this is like, no, you gotta pay your rent. And these people feel like they have this vision or they have this talent in them and the fucking rent is keeping them. That refusal to submit to reality, I find it…not even inspiring, just fascinating.
To read, listen, and watch the full conversation, grab your copy here if you’re in the US, and here for international.
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