I earned a BFA at one of the most prestigious art colleges in America, and armed with the new degree and considerable talent in pastels, water color and sculpture, I set out to conquer the art world. Short of money and common sense, I did the traditional artist routine of moving into a $50-a-month, 4th-floor walk-up dump, and then proceeded to starve.

During my first year, I sold two paintings, with a total price of $700, but earned another enormous sum of $800 by designing comic greeting cards. Hey, I did better than Vincent Van Gogh. In his entire working life, cut short by a self-inflicted bullet at age 38, he sold only one painting. Even that one was rumored to have been bought by his brother, Theo.

During that short lifetime, Vincent is recorded to have produced not more than 700 paintings. Would you believe that today there are at least 10,000 "authentic" ones in museums and private collections worldwide, some valued at $70 million or higher?

On the other hand, the prolific Pablo Picasso, who was a much better businessman than artist, lived long enough to enjoy millions of dollars in income, four wives and countless model-mistresses. He was so greedy, that on request, he'd do a five-second scrawl on an envelope for $500.

The art world today is skewed and screwed up by greedy wheelers and dealers so crooked they'd make a used car salesman or even Pablo blush. Much of the art they peddlel at outlandish prices today is no better than what a drug-fogged tagger sprays on a toilet wall.

My advice to starving artists? Get a life ... a productive one! I dragged my starving self into grad school, but instead of art, I majored in advertising and public relations. I got a good job, married, raised a family and retired after 25 years as boss of a large-company, 40-person PR division. Incidentally, in my division were six artists. No, they weren't starving. They earned good salaries because their skills were not in the dream world of fine arts, but in the reality of graphic arts.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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