An artist entrepreneur should not be an anomaly.
In fact, to be an artist is to be an entrepreneur.
One must support themselves, after all.
So you either need to treat your creative work like a business or find a patron.
I suggest maybe doing both.
Some artists tend to think making money is either a system you sell out to or something to be avoided altogether. But in reality, it’s neither. If you don’t make money, you won’t have any art to make. We must seek to better understand the business of being an artist. Ignoring this reality is the fastest route to stop creating altogether. To be an artist is to be an entrepreneur. We must learn to embrace this tension and the beauty that comes from it.
-Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don’t Starve