Artists are poor...? But Rich Inside...?

To Eat Must You Starve your Passion?
Getting into the field of art and taking it up as a career got me wondering about the financial aspect of this field. After reading about the lives of some of the most famous artists like Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh and Johannes Vermeer , I felt, satisfying materialistic need, like food at the most basic level, can become inversely proportionate to satisfying your passion in life.
But I don't want to be a starving artist.
This short article is part of an assignment on Paul Gauguin's work- "Where do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? "
Let me know if you guys want to have a look at the entire thing.