Crazy for Art, or from it?

     I've always wondered why people always talk about the artists that were crazy or broke or died badly as if that's the way it's always been or all that can be expected. I find that people always mention this when they're commenting on work that they have no intention of buying.
     A second grade class once visited my studio (years ago when I actually had one up and running) and the first thing that they told me was that I was the only artist they ever heard of that wasn't dead. (They had studied Van Gogh, Monet and O'Keeffe and seemed to think my paintings were a little of each.) Some of those artists did fine for themselves but which one do you hear the most about?
     What brought all of this to mind this morning was that I was putting a few coats of polyurethane on that painted box so I could get it sold and it occurred to me that IF or WHEN it sells the amount would be almost the same as the price of the supplies I just charged for my next project which of course is almost as funny as my last effort where the check received wasn't even enough for me to afford to be able to see the results.
     Things like this must be what make people wonder why we make the effort in the first place, but art is so much more than that. My guess is that if you have to ask, you'd never understand.