Time to move on. There’s a long tradition of celebrated artists who held down jobs to fund their personal projects. You might recognize a few: T.S. Eliot, Philip Glass, Richard Serra, Bram Stoker, Kurt Vonnegut, Dustin Hoffman. Hell, even Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo did contract work to pay the bills.
Then are are the innumerable artists who aren’t universally known but hold down day jobs and still maintain their creative output. I’ve interviewed some of my personal hero/artists on TnR - Pete List, Rob Mastrianni, Baba Israel, Carmine Guida and more. I was recently emailing with a friend about how she maintains a high level of personal creative work while raising three daughters on her own AND homeschooling them. What’s your excuse?
If you think a day job invalidates your identity as an artist your ego might be sabotaging you.