I love this.
I have seen a few documentaries along the way and a few were about artists like these. Mostly probably on PBS, but I would not know the names of the artists by now.
I never entertained that this lifestyle would be an option for me. I married too young and did not pursue art as other things took up my time.... and besides.... who did that ??? ha... Of course being older and looking back, I too wonder about how my life may have turned out if I had actually started early enough to have time to become really good at something.
I still enjoy doing what I do, whatever that is at the moment, so it does add joy to my life.
I will have to check out the youtube vid.
I really connected with this too. It stirred up old memories of what I thought my life might be like when I was in my twenties. Once I found these videos and watched them the YouTube algorithm started sending me all kinds of them.
My life has turned out similarly to yours, most of it was doing my art (writing) in my spare time until recently. Life happened and survival took precedence. It's worked out okay, better than I could have imagined. I'm thinking a lot about Act 2 lately. There isn't much of a future in writing books anymore. Every time I think about it the idea that comes to mind is just traveling and vlogging about my experiences.