Conflict of Interest in the Art World
The psychology behind building a sustainable creative career as an artist.
The Best Art Grants Over $10K for Visual Artists
Most artists are applying to the wrong grants. Here is a curated list of serious art grants over $10K worth your time.
Why AI Won’t Write Your Grant For You?
Using artificial intelligence to write your grant application will probably backfire.
Getting rejected won’t Kill you
Getting rejected by a grant does not mean you are a bad artist. Most elite grants reject almost everyone. Keep trying.
Stop Trying to Control Everything
Most stress comes from trying to control things you were never able to control in the first place.
Artists Misunderstand Public Art
Most artists misunderstand how public art commissions actually work. This conversation with curator Edi Muka explains what public art institutions are really looking for.
Why Your Art Grants Get Rejected?
Most art grants are not rejected because the work is bad. They get rejected because the portfolio, writing, and application system are weak.
Curator Mania: Stop Trying to Impress them
Most artists try too hard to impress curators. In reality, long-term opportunities usually come from being reliable, easy to work with, and staying in touch over time.
Laura Wee Lay Laq: “Transformation is a huge part of our culture”
Artist Laura Wee Láy Láq speaks about clay, spirit, language, ancestral memory, and the transformation stories that shape Stó:lō culture. A powerful conversation on art as prayer, earth as teacher, and culture as living presence.
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: “It’s my job as an artist to record history”
Artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun speaks with uncompromising force about colonialism, climate destruction, Indigenous sovereignty, and the sacredness of the earth. A raw and urgent conversation on art as witness, protest, and historical record.
Connie Watts: “For Us They’re Living Beings”
Artist Connie Watts reflects on masks, potlatch, family memory, Indigenous knowledge, and the living force of Northwest Coast art. A moving conversation on ancestry, healing, design, and the power of bringing cultural works back to life.
Fred Wilson: In Depth
Early Work and Influences (1980s–1990s) Fred Wilson’s formation as an artist was deeply informed by his early, behind-the-scenes experiences in museums. After earning a BFA in 1976, he worked in the education departments of major New York museums – including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History – where he…
Social Proof: The Hidden Force Behind Your Decisions
Why do people follow trends, trust viral content, and copy what others do? This article explains how social proof shapes everyday decisions — from social media and shopping to politics and the art world.
Kamau Brathwaite: alter/native
Introduction Edward Kamau Brathwaite (1930–2020) stands as a towering figure in Caribbean literature, a poet-scholar whose work revolutionized the region’s literary voice. Over six decades, Brathwaite produced an expansive body of poetry and criticism that chronicles the African diaspora experience and boldly experiments with form and language. From his early days in the 1960s crafting…
Reciprocity: The Debt You Never Agreed To
Most people underestimate how strongly the need to “return the favor” shapes their decisions. This article explores the hidden psychology of reciprocity, generosity, obligation, and manipulation.
Outsourcing Your Brain? Think for Yourself in the AI Age
What happens when people stop trusting their own perception and begin outsourcing judgment to Artificial Intelligence? From weather apps to ChatGPT, cognitive offloading is quietly reshaping memory, attention, and independent thought.
Your Brain on AI: What the Science Actually Shows
When the machine thinks, you think less. That’s not a moral failure. That’s just what happens. The tool doesn’t decide which version of you shows up. You do.
Your Research Process is Costing You Grants
Save time and protect your credibility. I give you the exact method, the exact prompts, and the exact verification steps to use AI research tools without embarrassing yourself in a grant application.
Winners Walk Away
Grit is overrated. Strategic quitting is underrated. Most people stay trapped in bad projects, careers, and goals not because they are rationally valuable, but because sunk costs, identity, and fear make walking away feel like failure.
Get your Most Important Tasks (MITs) right
The struggle for time is real. After sleep, eating, and exercise, you have only a few hours for work. By identifying two or three Most Important Tasks each day and completing them before email and messages, you reclaim control of your time.
Stop using the wrong CV format. Instead use this one
Your curriculum vitae should make your achievements easy to find, not difficult to decipher. Download a free artist curriculum vitae template based on a professional gallery standard and learn how to present your exhibitions, education, publications, and awards clearly and professionally.
Behind the Scenes at Sweden’s Public Art Agency: A Visit with Art Consultant Magnus Mattsson
Most artists never see what happens after an artwork enters a public collection. During a visit to Statens konstråd, Magnus Mattsson (Art consultant) shared insights into acquisitions, collection management, and how public art reaches people across Sweden.
State Arts Councils in the US: The Complete Directory
A directory of every state arts council in the United States. Find your state agency, confirm eligibility, and apply for funding.
Why Good Artists Keep Getting Rejected From Grants?
The people deciding whether to fund your project are not meeting the real you. They are meeting a project description, a budget, an artist statement, and a selection of images. Your application is a stand-in for your practice. If it fails to communicate the work clearly, even a strong project can be rejected.
What To Do After a Grant Rejection?
What if the rejection was not the problem? The real question is what you do with it next.
Peter Morin: “Canon is such a Strange Word”
What happens when an ancestral object speaks back? In this profound interview, artist Peter Morin explores Indigenous memory, colonial histories, artistic failure, and the enduring power of bodies, objects, and land.
AI for Grant Writing: A Guide for Visual Artists
Artificial intelligence is changing how artists write grant applications, but the obvious shortcut often backfires. Discover how to use AI for research, editing, and strategy while keeping the one thing reviewers actually care about: your voice.
Conflict of Interest in the Art World
You don’t need to ask whether the person is good or bad. You ask what they’re rewarded for, and what they quietly lose if you say no. Incentives don’t just change what people do. They quietly shape the advice they think is honest.