The Autonomous Creative

What does it take to become a successful writer or artist? Go behind the scenes with amazing professional creatives in a wide variety of fields to find out what, exactly, it took for them to be able to quit the day job and build a creative career fully committed to the work they're most passionate about.

As a creative yourself, you know that whenever two artists or writers get together, inevitably the conversation turns to, “No, but seriously, how do you do it?”

This show is that conversation. And you’re invited.

Follow on

Episodes

Navigating the midlife pivot to a creative career, with Martha Rich

Martha Rich is commercial and fine artist who took a long and circuitous route through many day jobs (Workman's comp insurance. Hotel front desk clerk. Repo woman?) to pivot to an art career at the age of 37. Now Martha makes a full-time living as an artist making work that brings her joy. Her secret to building an absolutely custom autonomous creative life? When bad things happened in her life (and they did, with regularity) instead of curling into a defensive crouch, she saw opportunities to r...

Dec 02, 2021•58 min

Why being multi-passionate is your strength, with Sarah Firth

"What theories about myself and my creativity am I willing to test? Am I willing to fail?" Sarah Firth is an awesome cartoonist and graphic recorder, among many other things. Sarah takes a bit of a mad scientist approach to her creative life. She embraces experimentation and testing to try to discover new ways to organize her life around her creative interests, always looking to answer the question: "How much value can I bring to something? And then also how much time can I buy back?" This openn...

Nov 11, 2021•48 min

How to start a school and still find time for art, with Tom Hart

Tom Hart is a cartoonist, and he’s the founder and executive director of a comics school, The Sequential Artists Workshop. His 2016 memoir, Rosalie Lightning , debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Tom offers amazing, valuable insights about the path to creative career success—and that what “success” looks like must be self-defined, always. For Tom, that means freedom is number one. When he has creative autonomy, he’s happy. Tom spoke about the invisible bargains we make t...

Oct 28, 2021•49 min

When to quit your day job (or when not to!), with Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson

The only thing more challenging than using frenetic DIY self-publishing to springboard a career in children's books might be running a commercial salmon fishery on the Alaskan tundra from a cabin with no electricity, no toilet, and four kids. That's why I was so excited to talk to Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson, the illustrator-author-married-with-4-kids duo. Robbi illustrates, Matthew writes, and together they make picture books for kids and adults. Robbi and Matthew are a whirlwind of creative...

Oct 14, 2021•56 min

How to finish writing your novel: don't write for free, with Alexander Chee

In this interview, Alexander and I talk a lot about money, and specifically, about how asking for money and negotiating for what you want and need is a key piece of building a healthy relationship with your work and career. We also talked about the myth of the solitary artist, and the reality: that community and relationships are key to not just success, but survival. Finally, Alexander is the source of an incredibly pivotal insight for me: that caring for your creative process IS self-care, and...

Sep 30, 2021•58 min

← Prev

For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android

Open in Metacast