Kat Koh is a career coach for creative people.

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Artists do more than paint

Why is this funny, you think? My knee jerk thought in spite of knowing better, “MlLLIONAIRE and ARTIST? Opposing ideas? Ha!”

Society has conditioned us to think:

  1. artists are poor, if not “starving”

  2. millionaires don’t make art

  3. money and art are somehow in opposition

  4. art looks like X, Y, or Z

The lizard brain is old, strong, fast, and concrete. Every big shift forward we’ve made as a human race entailed developing superior control over the lizard brain so that the prefrontal cortex — where we think creativity lives — can rub some ideas together to spark something. 

The definition of art has been expanding rapidly. Traditional-looking art can be found in museums, and we can learn much from close, slow study of these. Just don't limit your definition of art to "well-lit objects that can sit still in a building". Giving people a way to file their taxes more enjoyably can be art too.