I must admit to being conflicted about this. On a completely coldly logical basis, I don’t see why, once an individual decides to do “art” as a business, that his/her business should thrive other than by sales or performance revenue. Nobody generally talks about patronage for other businesses (I’m excluding macro patronage like immense government subsidies for certain industries, most of which don’t need it).

Narrowing my focus to music, I have some idea how tough it is for musicians, unless “lightning” strikes to make a living. I’m sure there are performers whose recordings I buy, and whose live performances I attend when (and this is rare) they occur within a reasonable distance of where I live, who work very hard to earn a “middle class” income. I buy their recordings, and tickets not to “patronize” them, but because I want to enjoy the music.

I suppose I’m saying that if you want to be paid for what you do, on a self-employed basis, you are in that sense just another small business enterprise (and some 95% of those fail, I hear).

But do I want beauty to disappear because everyone capable of making beautiful artifacts needed to get and keep that delivery job with UPS? I suppose not, and if everyone capable of producing beautiful artifacts just does it as a hobby at home, I think the world, my world, would be a poorer place indeed.