You have a skill, you use that skill to make stuff, people like your stuff and want to buy it, you sell that stuff therefore you're making money from your skill. That's how a free market works.
It doesn't matter what that skill is. It does not matter how important to society it is. Any job is a real job if it makes you money.
Art is imporant, people need art, without art the world would be a boring mess.
"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Nietzsche