^That’s pretty much what I was thinking—and leaning towards lying for the duration, if I couldn’t evade the issue somehow.
I went out with a few times with a woman who bills herself as a muralist. She also does some smaller paintings and dabbles in poetry and singing/songwriting. She has managed to sell a few paintings and has gotten two commissions to do murals over the past three years, but she mainly supports herself by working as a waitress (she attractive and outgoing, and she works at a higher-end restaurant, so she makes good tips). She hasn’t made any money off her poetry or music. She could probably make a little money as a street musician if she learned some covers and got beyond the intermediate level with her guitar, but that doesn’t seem to be her thing.
I ended up in the “friend zone” with this woman, so I suppose it doesn’t matter now, but I really did wonder what I was going to say if she ever asked me directly what I thought of her her work. Her murals are mediocre. Her poetry is mostly awful. IMHO, of course.