Between 2019-2021, I blogged about the creative process and the business of being an artist. I did my best to cram-jam my posts filled with useful tools, tips and hacks and straight-up honesty from my own point of view.
My focus was figuring out how we can overcome our creative blocks, actually finish our projects and earn money from our art. I also shared the work of Black and Global Majority artists.
Take a look around or see the posts by categories: creative process, self-producing, artist life hacks, artist series. I hope you find something useful here.
I heard an apocryphal tale from a fellow writer, that when Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, was broke and wanted to write a book that would make her money, she purchased a book about writing books and followed its method. That book, Eileen, won the Man Booker Prize.
Read MoreMy Mum, Donna Penrose, is a scientist. Between her early twenties through her fifties, she worked in all sorts of labs, and earned a PhD in Molecular Biology.
Not long ago she was talking about scientific work and what makes a scientist. It struck me that the key ingredient to a successful career in science, is applicable to those of us in the arts.
Read MoreI hate asking for help. I get tense and uncomfortable. Not only do I not like to admit my own fallibility, I struggle to trust anyone else to do what I want, how I want.
This mindset makes life (ostensibly) more in my control, but getting sh*t done is slow, arduous and overwhelming.
When I feel shy or trepidatious about putting myself out there, I think of Alice Munro.
If you’re not familiar, Alice Munro is a Canadian short story writer. Residing, for the most part, in a tiny rural town, her stories were regularly published in the New Yorker, she’s written 14 collections of stories and won umpteen awards including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.
Read MoreI often hear theatre artists say that they hate theatre. They don’t feel like going. They’re sick of it. They don’t like anything they see.
Full disclosure: I have 110% been there and said those things. And I still struggle with those feelings.
Sometimes when you’re hard at it, grinding it out, going to the theatre is a royal pain in the ass.
That being said, I believe firmly that regularly getting yourself to the theatre will transform your artistic practice and your business savvy for the better.
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