Notes on Patronage

Like most creative types throughout history, all I want is to be able to work at what I think is important to work on without ever having to worry about money. Like most creative types throughout history, having not been born into a family of significant means, such a life is not by default available for me. Therefore, I will have to do what most creative types do throughout history, and compromise. I compromise in ways very similar to what creative types have done throughout history: I have job that pays the bills, and I cultivate relationships with patrons who sponsor my work. Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Bernini: even those who were at the apex of their craft spent a lot of their working hours working on things that they didn't care about, because that's what their patrons wanted them to do (depict guys they didn't give a shit about, in ways that required long term travel to miserable far-away locales if they were unlucky) or because it paid the bills (run an apprentice shop to train…