Making art as a disabled person

Life is tough. Life is especially tough when you are chronically ill and disabled. As you know I am currently working on my masters thesis. I also work on side projects when I can. After my masters I will have to think about my career. Currently I work at 10% capacity. Writing music for a living is the dream, however one that is far out of reach in this capitalist hellscape we live in. We artists get taught that we have to strive for greatness and making money with our craft. That is a framing in a capitalist profit system that I aim to reject. What even is greatness? Getting performed all the time, probably. Traveling the world? Being famous? I don’t need fame. I want to make art that makes me happy, and I want to teach others how to compose music, because I think we make it too inaccessible to do so. I want to make art for art’s sake, not for profit’s sake. After my master’s I will need some sort of income. Either I will use up all my energy on some corporate job, or maybe the Norwegian government will see how sick I am and let me go on disability aid. That would be the ideal. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore (as I live with my girlfriend who works fulltime) and I could focus on my art, and building a community of composers in my city. (if you live in Trondheim and want to get to know contemporary concert composers, hmu, we have meetups)

If I get disability benefit, I could also teach people composition who might not be able to afford it, as I will have a steady income.

So, in a way, being chronically ill makes me value the time I get to make art more. When I look at one of my inspirations, Dale Trumbore, and I see that she spends only a couple of hours a day composing, it is comforting. I will be alright. I am good at this. The time I spend on it is incredibly productive. Maybe I can make it work. I can make the art I want, that makes me happy. Hopefully it will get performed. An hour of work a day on my masters thesis goes a long way right now. I will be finished with it spring 2027 <3

May all your dreams come true.

Free Palestine,

Maya