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What you need to know: A case why artistes make the best lovers<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s almost like people feel like they must shame women for their love lives. You date a man, and you leave him, and then he gets a government appointment, and all of a sudden your entire life is (once again) up for scrutiny.<\/p>\n It\u2019s as if women can\u2019t win! You date the richest man on the planet, you\u2019re dating him for his money. If you date an artiste, who is apparently broke (because that\u2019s what artistry means, of course), you\u2019re making a bad decision. You date a watchman; you have no standards. You decide to not date, you don\u2019t understand the currency of youth and beauty; you marry young, you\u2019re stupid, you marry too old, you\u2019re too late.<\/p>\n Take the example of artiste Juliani and Lilian Ng\u2019ang\u2019a. It doesn\u2019t matter what way Lilian turns, it\u2019s either she is at fault for dating rich or currently for dating a \u2018broke\u2019 man.<\/p>\n I find the discourse around dating artistes very interesting, obviously because I am a writer, but even more so, that whole bit for if you\u2019re dating an artist, then you must both be very broke, or someone is supporting someone else. Definitely, this is true sometimes \u2013 even though money isn\u2019t everything, it is definitely something, and when you don\u2019t have it, someone is suffering a little. The notion comes from somewhere, for sure. And there will be times in many \u2018artistic\u2019 relationships, where someone has to prop someone else up \u2013 but isn\u2019t that all relationships? Sometimes I\u2019ll have money for the anniversary dinner, and you won\u2019t; sometimes, someone\u2019s payment will have come through late, and another person has to shoulder a few more responsibilities; sometimes, a worldwide pandemic will happen and there will be no coins to rub together, much less argue over<\/p>\n Maybe, just maybe, artists are the ones to date, in fact, because we\u2019re the ones who are more familiar with the impermanence of life. We\u2019re used to it. We don\u2019t expect life to follow the rules society insists on, because no one really follows the rules with us. No rent this month? We\u2019ll find it from somewhere, just like we\u2019ve always had to.<\/p>\n Artists empathise more during hard times, too. Being an artist in itself is a hard time \u2013 people don\u2019t take you seriously, and they\u2019re always comparing you to people\u2019s exes with government jobs. No one wants to really pay us what we\u2019re worth, because most people think, si it\u2019s just pointing and shooting to take a picture? Ah, si you\u2019re just writing a few words\u2026I\u2019ve been told things like, I also used to write compositions in high school, it can\u2019t be that serious. We know what it feels like, intimately, to carve out an identity that is outside of how much money we make, and therefore, we are incredibly self-assured \u2013 again, because we have to be. And because we understand the separation of love and labour, we\u2019re the ones who will remind you that leisure is just as important as work. We\u2019ll stop you from going over the edge and working too hard for a company you don\u2019t even own. We\u2019ll know where all the good gigs are to unwind and remember that life is more than just deadlines and audit reports. You want to smell the roses? We know where to buy the most fragrant bouquets.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the fact that when you date an artist, you\u2019re immortalized, because artists can\u2019t help but make art about the things that bring them joy or sadness, and everything else in between. There will be a song, or a poem, or a painting, or a sculpture, commemorated to you \u2013 possibly more than one (I have two books of poetry to date. Do the math). Someone somewhere is always thinking of how to symbolise the glories of your love, in the most expressive of ways. You\u2019ll never have to guess how they feel about you. Just look at the splendour of the Taj Mahal! (architects are artists too!) This is a case for artistic relationships. They\u2019re the best kind, because art and the passion behind it is one of the sincerest forms of love. Date an artist today.<\/p>\n
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