Today I spent some time looking at other blogs about marketing communications, and I began to be concerned that I'm wasting my time. My work seems so insignificant in comparison. I'm not so witty or insightful or forceful in my opinions. So far as I can tell, few people value the work I do. But I still love to work and can't think of anything else I could do better. So until further inspiration, I will persist. I guess that's what creatives do.

Huffington Post: Reflecting on the Labor of Artists, 2010-Sep-6, by Robert L. Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts 

Ask any artist or arts manager the last time he or she felt relaxed and you'll hear, "relaxed, what's that?" Their labors are real, but they are labors of love.

And so as we return to work, I salute the 2.2 million artists that our U.S. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics actually count as making their living as artists. I applaud the many millions of other artists, actors, craftspeople, dancers, who don't make the federal list because they can't derive the majority of their income from their art work but from whom we benefit every day in choruses, theaters, and design. There are 2.6 million full-time equivalent jobs supported by the expenditures of nonprofit arts and culture organizations, and 5.7 million jobs when the impact of audience expenditures is counted in. That's big — bigger than most people know.

via http://www.huffingtonpost.com