Starving Artist?

The question of how to balance creating artwork and working full time has been an ongoing struggle for me for years. Should I be a purist and focus entirely on my own artwork? Should I work and create? Or should I give up on my dream of becoming a master of my craft? Each one of these affords it's own set of benefits and challenges.

Should I focus on my own artwork? This is my desired choice. It means depending on the financial support of others around me. I have tried this for years. I haven't been afford the time to treat my artwork as my job because it doesn't generate consistent income. Nor, does it look like a job to the onlooker. They see it as playing and a waste of time. And yet these very people enjoy and are transported by the same art they look so despairingly at. It's a very sore subject for me. Which leads me to have to choose an alternate path.

Should I work and create my artwork? This is an option that is more palatable to others. But it's like having three fulltime jobs. First I have to work fulltime doing a job that will bring in consistent and more reliable money, then the relationships, chores and upkeep of home life, and then life affords me time to create artwork. This option is what most people want you to do as an artist. But nowhere in there do the account for your time to sleep. So, I wonder, is this why we're all considered "crazy or eccentric" as artists. Because we're so sleep deprived that we can only exist in our own mindscape. For sanity sake do we embark on the last option?

Is giving up on creativity even a real option for an artist? My mental health, emotional stability and sanity are tied into my creativity. Saying I'm getting rid of all my creative supplies and focusing strictly on working and life is almost not comprehensible to me. I would much rather slit my wrists than to entertain this idea. But I feel like the world around me would have me make this an option for the sake of being a productive part of society. And again I say they judge and berate us while also indulging in the experiences we afford them with our artwork. No this is not an option for any artist. Art is our life and our life is art no matter what other decisions we choose to make. I can't and won't give up on my art. Therefore, I may be a little eccentric; or a lot crazy but at least doing what I need to do to survive.