Writing about yourself is weird.

You can spend six months making an entire body of work, confidently talk about another artist’s practice for an hour, and then someone asks you to write 150 words about yourself and suddenly you have absolutely nothing to say.

The good news is that your artist bio doesn’t need to be complicated.

It just needs to quickly tell someone who you are, what you do and a little about your creative career.

And once you have a good one written, you can use it over and over again.

Grant applications can look terrifying.

Guidelines.

Assessment criteria.

Budgets.

Support material.

Project plans.

Outcome measures.

And a portal that somehow always feels like it was designed in 2007.

But grants can be an incredibly valuable part of building a creative practice.

The trick is learning how to turn your idea into a clear, realistic project that an assessor can actually understand.

Running a creative studio — particularly a shared space with dozens of independent creatives working across completely different disciplines — is equal parts community building, facilities management, admin, events, marketing, problem-solving and putting out approximately 400 tiny metaphorical fires.

Sometimes literal buckets are involved too.

Let's get something out of the way first.

Most “passive income” isn't actually passive.

You usually have to create something, photograph it, upload it, market it, manage the website and occasionally answer an email from someone who entered their address incorrectly.

But there are ways to make your creative practice earn money without every dollar requiring you to make a completely new artwork from scratch.

We prefer to think of it as repeatable income.

Commissions can be an incredible part of a creative practice.

They can also become an endless chain of emails about whether the blue could be “slightly less blue but also maybe more blue?”

The solution is boundaries.

Very clear boundaries.

You'd love to exhibit your work.

You've found a gallery that feels perfect.

Now what?

Approaching galleries can feel intimidating, particularly when you're early in your career.

But galleries are run by people.

And like most professional relationships, a little research and a respectful approach go a long way.

Artist statements have a reputation for being unnecessarily complicated.

You know the ones.

Three paragraphs in and you're still trying to work out what the artist actually makes.

Your artist statement doesn't need to sound like that.

Its job is simple:

Help someone understand your work.

Good photos of your work matter.

You’ll use them for your website, Instagram, grant applications, exhibition proposals, portfolios, press, online stores and probably about fifty other things.

The good news?

You don't necessarily need an expensive camera or professional studio setup.

A recent phone, decent natural light and a little bit of patience can get you a long way.

Being a creative can be surprisingly lonely.

A lot of the actual making happens alone, and when you're emerging into the creative industry it can sometimes feel like everybody else already knows each other.

They don't.

And you don't need to wait for someone to invite you into the creative community.

Pricing also reflects where you are professionally.

Things like your experience, exhibition history, demand for your work, previous sales, commissions, awards and the development of your practice can all influence your pricing.

Creative block happens to pretty much everyone.

Sometimes you have plenty of ideas but can't make anything.

Sometimes you desperately want to create but have absolutely no idea what to make.

And sometimes you're simply exhausted.

The first thing to know is that forcing yourself to create your next masterpiece usually isn't the solution.

So, you want to have an exhibition.

Exciting.

Also potentially overwhelming when you suddenly realise that making the artwork is only one part of actually putting on a show.

Whether you're exhibiting in an artist-run space, gallery, studio or unconventional venue, breaking the process into stages makes everything much more manageable.

You can make incredible work.

But if nobody knows it exists, selling it becomes significantly harder.

Marketing your art doesn't mean becoming a salesperson every time you open Instagram. It's really about helping people discover your work, understand it, connect with it and know how they can support you.