"What are you going to do when you can't take credit for your art? Your oft-shattered ego won't get the shot in the arm it needs when your signature doesn't exist anymore and the steely truth of art for art's sake bares down on you like an unpayable debt."

Is it so wrong to take pride in one's work?

I do agree with you, to an extent. When images and music are created simply to further one's ego. When one isn't drawing what they want to draw, but what they percieve that others want to see from them. Writing the music others will praise them for, instead of the music that they themselves want to hear.

Of course, even this is an expression of one's soul, is it not?

"Sounds and images will only exist as fundamental expressions of the soul and not as a source of rent payment."

Why can't art be both?

I create art for myself. For the sake of doing it. I would like to find a job that lets me draw for a living. Until that time paying rent, bills, debts, and whatnot stands in the way of my art. If I have no time to draw, because I work all day, then pass out exhausted when I get home...where does all that freedom to create art 'for the sake of art' go?

Something to consider;

The stereotype of the starving artist exists for a reason. I've created most of my art during the periods of time when I was unemployed, and done far less artwork when I had a steady job for the reasons I've already given.

Is it so bad to want to creat art because it's something you love to do, yet still be able to eat? Go see a doctor when you're sick or injured? Buy art supplies? Afford a roof over your head?

I think the argument that artists should just create art and be content with that alone misses the point of the struggle most artists face. At the same time, I agree, when do you cross the line? When are you creating art merely to make a buck or to inflate your own ego? No longer creating art, but just churning out what sells or brings in the most praise?

I don't think the answers are all that simple. When I say I agree, it's because the art that isn't driven entirely by a need for wealth, the music that isn't written purely to be popular, is what is more likely to appeal to me. But again, aren't those an expression of one's soul just as much? Though an expression some might not take to as well?

Something to think about.