Just my view of the unintended or intended disrespect of artists.
This is not written to encourage disrespect. Bringing this subject up is important, because I am not sure that a lot of people know what they are doing when they do stuff like ask for art for free or what not. Yes, asking for art for free is probably my top disrespecting thing that one could do to an artist. They worked dam hard to create the work. Time, effort and expensive art supplies. Now, that artist has the option to say no and standing their ground. On the other hand, I don't see a barter deal as disrespect, as long as it is reasonable. If someone can not afford the art but wants it, most likely there could be a barter deal.
Giving cruel comments is disrespectful. I know art lends itself to criticism, but honestly, if you don't like the work, keep it to yourself unless you are an artist and have a constructive critique, I find it just mean. Predicting an artist's future is for true fortune tellers. Saying stuff like "Your not going to make any money selling that kind of stuff." or "There is no future in that." is just crazy talk and disrespectful. All artists, even the masters drew crappy stuff in the beginning. Only with experience and perseverance does an artist make it. People can not see at what stage an artist is or how determined and truly talented they are.
Movies and books have depicted artists as starving and barely making it, while drunk and hooked on drugs. I assure you, that it is far from the truth for most artists. I don't get my surreal visions from mushrooms or drugs. It is also quite difficult to create while drunk. We create in our own crazy ways. It is true, but don't assume we are high to get there. We were just born this way.
Artist survive in life like anyone else with a home business. We work hard at what we know and love best. We may be more frugal than most, but we are not starving. In fact there are some artists that do quite well. Stop categorizing us as "starving artist". I have yet to meet one. There are even artists with side jobs, write books, play in bands and even teach. Artists are very adapt to creating residual incomes. We got this. Stop assuming all artists are barely making it and poor. In fact, who do people go to to advertise or come up with creative ways of selling products. Yes, that would be artists.
Supporting an artist by purchasing their art or product is the highest compliment. True patrons of the arts may even pay more than the asking price. It happens. This is also why there is a thing called patreon.com. People can connect with artists and creators as well as help support them financially. It's about respect and the love of art, because without art in our lives we would all have a number for a name, wear grey jump suits and have chili bowl hair cuts while driving motorized boxes.
In conclusion, It is disrespectful of artists not to treat them like regular humans. I would never ask my plumber to fix my toilet for free. You wouldn't tell a body builder just starting out that they will never make it with a body like that. Well, duh. They have many years to go, but they will get there if they stick with it. Just give encouragement if you can. Give respect to artists, because they are devoting their lives to create this stuff.