I'm not a sell out?

When I was a teen in the 90s, selling out was like joining the dark side. Even if you were able to maintain your creative control as a band, filmmaker or what have you, if you aligned forces with "the man", you lost all your cred.

Times have changed, and now if you don't sell out, or aim for it in some fashion, you sort of come off like a sitting duck. It's like you missed the boat, and someone else is rolling around naked on a bed of cash. Artistic integrity is sort of like an in joke in most contemporary pop culture circles.

Well, recently I came across a job opportunity as an artist that the young me would've loved. I would be able to be an illustrator and have a steady income and probably benefits.

One of the caveats of this gig involved moving across the continent, which would not be a problem. The other issue would involve essentially ignoring the past few years of my career. I've been attempting a transition from an artist/writer to a writer/artist, with the ultimate goal of being mostly a writer and sometimes an artist.

Taking this new gig, while bringing financial stability and the chance to create art full time, which I love to do(and have been doing the past decade, though hovering just above of the starving artist status), it would totally go against what I want to do. What I feel I should do, deep in my heart.

Call me stupid, a sitting duck, or nostalgic, but I decided to cheezily "follow my dream", and forego the stability of this art gig. I'm staying the course, continuing my efforts to write more.

I did not sell out. The jury is still out on whether or not that was the right choice. But I still have my integrity, right? Right?

/adc