The field of art is a competitive one, but it is rewarding in spite of that.
To answer your question, yes it is possible to be an artist and have the bear minimum use of social media and not have to interact with your fanbase. It might help you get exposure in the long run but you have to bear in mind that, as Hugues said it is a very tough career. You could probably get by on instagram if you don't want to get into the nonsense that is youtube which I wouldn't take seriously as a platform for a number of reasons.
That's acknowledging that Instagram is, in a sense pay to play. If you want to get a massive amount of followers you're likely going to have to boost your posts. Either that or make art based on dumb memes which... In my honest opinion is limiting to that respect.
My work with freelance has been more of a side thing as of late. As much as I would love to make it big I'm just not at that point where I feel that I can yet, but I can still do what I can to get whatever exposure and opportunities that can help me build my resume and skills while working a full time job. Not everyone is in a position to do this so it really depends on the amount of time you're able to have in order to focus on what you do to build up your artistic passions into a full time career.