Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything is money. But! There are subcultures that are hard to monetize though, e.g. furry subculture since it comes with so much pornography. No brand wants to be close to that. At this point, as a furry artist, I feel it's refreshing that this very weird and mostly harmless adult nature keeps the rest of the art also somewhat safe and in the hands of small artists.
Yeah, it is nice being in at least one fandom that is mostly left alone from most of the mainstream. One thing I love about the greater furry community is that a LOT of art gets aggregated to a certain site, which I am sure you are aware of, that puts high value on proper sourcing/tagging. (And still respects the wishes of the creators) Maybe unrelated: Do you think furry commissions are so expensive because so many…
Furry art is a significant part of my income and trust me: furry commissions are crazy cheap. Yes, even that one guy charging in the low four figures - he does some pretty complex work that I'd charge four figures for too, if I was willing to work that long on a client's piece.
I could be making a lot more money if I'd stayed in the animation industry, or if I was hunting corporate illustration work. But then I'd have to deal with much tighter deadlines, restrictive style guides, clients who really have no idea what they want and no idea how to articulate how what I just spent a while working on fails to capture what they want, figuring out how to make the lucrative but incredibly boring world of, say, standardized shipping pallets visually interesting, and a whole bunch of office politics. Drawing happy animal-headed people having a good time is a lot more fun. It's nice when a corporate gig comes my way now and then because it can pay a few months rent, but it definitely takes its toll in the amount of tedious bullshit I have to deal with.
I'd also maybe have things like "health insurance" and "a retirement fund" but, hey. It's a tradeoff.