Intro for artists

If you make creative work you’re probably trying to answer some version of:

• How do I know if what I'm making is "right"?
• How do I sustain my practice without burning out?
• How do I find my people and not lose myself in the internet?

In my personal practice these are questions I'm constantly wrestling with, and often use my own experiences to theorize and observe patterns we all experience. This page outlines writing and work that explores these themes.

1. The creative practice

• “Nine creative meditations” – A video with a series of reflections on sustaining a creative life.
• “What's the difference between an artist and a creator?” – A piece exploring the range of roles creative people inhabit.
• “How to long-game” – How thinking beyond the moment changes how you work today.
• "The economics of self-publishing a book" — A practical guide to what I've learned in my experiment running a small press publisher.
• “How to get where you need to be when you don't know where you're going” – On uncertainty and letting your path change shape.
• "The artist and the inner retreat" — The importance of withdrawal for creative people.

2. In groups we become stronger

Most creative breakthroughs happen in groups, scenes, and labels. Some entry points:

• “Defining groupcore” – On why groups, not individuals, are becoming the true units of culture.
• "Rethinking labels" — A piece applying the logic of record labels to other forms of cultural expression.
• Metalabel – A project to help groups of creative people share ownership of their work and release together.
• Dark Forest Collective — The collective of writers and researchers that I actively lead and collaborate with. Together we've published multiple books and releases.
• New Creative Era – A podcast with artist Joshua Citarella exploring our creative practices and life online today.

3. New structures: Artist Corporations

• Artist Corporations TED Talk — The talk where I first introduced the A-Corp idea.
• Artist Corporations on NPR — A 45 minute NPR show dedicated to exploring the A-Corp idea.
• "Do artists get paid for making art?" — What an art controversy involving MoMA from the early '70s tells us about creative work.
• “Artist Corporations” essay series – Why existing legal forms (LLC, C-corp, nonprofit) don’t really match how creative work works, and what a better structure could look like.
• A-Corp law work in Colorado – Updates on the campaign to create a new Artist Corporation legal form in state law, so a group of artists can form a company that matches the way they already collaborate.

4. Go deeper

• Book: On the Creative Life – A book version of a series of conversations between Josh Citarella and I about building and sustaining a creative life.
• Podcast: New Creative Era – Episodes where I talk with other artists and creative people about how they work, survive, and organize.
• Newsletter / blog – Ongoing notes from the field as these ideas turn into laws, products, and new experiments.