Science Fiction Review 23
- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW 23 - A black ink and black color pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size coquille board. It appears on the cover of SFR 23, edited and published by Richard Geis.
I suppose most people think that freelance illustrating for magazines and books is an easy way to go through life, and perhaps for some artists that may be so, but only one out of four ever manage to earn a living at it. For most artists it is a hard-knock life of hoping to make contact with some editor that will like their work and give them an assignment. But there is no regular salary, no medical insurance, no holidays off with pay, no vacations with pay, no assurance of any kind, always worrying if they will be able to sustain themselves with their artwork for the rest of their lives.
It's a tough way to earn an easy living. I know that's a self-contradictory statement; how can it be tough to do something easy? Well, that's called a "paradox," which is a literary device used to tell the truth by making an absurd statement. It's also known as an "Oxymoron," which my dictionary says is, "a rhetorical statement that sounds false, but involves a point of truth.
Here's another oxymoron, "sometimes, less is more," which describes a situation where keeping things simple, avoiding unnecessary complications can produce an improved outcome.
A Chinese philosopher used this oxymoron, "To lead people, walk behind them". Meaning that people must know that their leader has their well-being in mind, is "behind them".
Paradox is a factor in our lives, and so, while the act of drawing or painting a picture may be easy work physically, the other factors involved in earning a living doing it can be overwhelmingly difficult.
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