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Welcome to Your Art Is A Spell, the podcast that ignites inspiring and transformative conversations about art as a magical practice. I'm your host, Edgar Fabián Frías—a multi-passionate artist, witch, therapist, and proud mutant shape-shifter. My art spells have reached audiences through social media, billboards, and skyscrapers and have even been placed on the surface of the moon! Join us as we explore how reclaiming your unique artistic voice and embracing bold creativity can transform your life and the world around you. Subscribe to the podcast and sign up for our newsletter at www.yourartisaspell.com to stay connected!
welcome Your art is a spell and it will
change your life and the world around
you Hello everyone and welcome back to Your Art is
a Spell I'm your host Edgar Fabian Frias and today
we're going to be talking about something that's
been pissing me off for years The deliberate
financial disempowerment of artists So here's
the thing I've had to start from a zero in two
different careers First as a psychotherapist and
then as an artist And in both fields I experienced
the exact same pattern graduate programs charging
tens of thousands of dollars then sending us into
the world with absolute zero financial education
no business skills no negotiation tactics nothing
about contracts just nothing And it hit me this is
not an accident This is systematic Think about it
I've literally had to work for free for two
years as a therapist as an artist I've been
expected to take exposure instead of payment and
to gratefully accept exploitative adjunct positions
that can barely cover rent And I bet many of you
hearing this episode or watching have experienced
the same thing So what's really going on here let
me break it down In both of the graduate programs
I attended asking about money was treated like it
was beneath the curriculum When I asked professors
to talk about contracts or negotiation tactics at
UC Berkeley during my MFA I was met with dismissal
as if wanting to survive financially was somehow
corrupting my artistic purity Here's something
wild My cohort at UC Berkeley was the first ever
cohort made up entirely of BIPOC students mostly
from low-income to middle income backgrounds We
needed this knowledge and the program refused
to provide it Yes there were a couple of amazing
teachers who dedicated some of their own personal
time to share some feedback and some information
but it was not a part of the curriculum Now I'm
going to talk about how some institutions subtly
or not so subtly reinforce financial illiteracy
One they send contracts as PDFs instead of as
editable documents implying that you can't negotiate
that the contract is a done deal They create
power dynamics where asking for fair pay is seen
as being ungrateful or difficult They perpetuate
the myth that financial savvy and creativity are
somehow incompatible And this lands particularly
hard on women people of color and queer and trans
artists who are already fighting against systemic
Undervaluing of our work This is already the
case here in America and I know in a lot of other
countries as well Let me share something shocking
or maybe not so shocking depending on where you're
coming from Most artists even if they go through
to get their MFAs are not taught about money
Yet we're all expected to navigate capitalism
often as self-employed contractors We're spending
upwards of $100,000 on degrees that deliberately
exclude the very information that we need to
survive And this keeps us vulnerable especially
now with economic instability AI disruption and
targeted attacks on diversity initiatives This
is just too much And I've seen how this plays out
in real time There are artists who don't know how
to read or negotiate contracts Artists who don't
know how to budget for their actual needs artists
who don't know how to account for their time or
for their materials build financial stability
between projects and then what happens we burn out
We subsidize our own work We take on side hustles
that drain our creative energy Or worst of all we
just stop making art And this creates the system
where only those with family wealth or other
privileges can sustain artistic careers long term
Think about the artists you've seen get discovered
in their 60s or 70s Suddenly their work skyrockets
in value when they're in hospice care The system
profits from our creativity but ensures that we
don't have the financial literacy to profit from
it ourselves when we are healthy and alive I had
a moment when I finally realized that no one was
coming to save me No one was coming to give me the
information that I needed to be a financially
successful artist No institution was going to
teach me what I needed to know So I decided to
get my own financial education I essentially
have given myself an MBA through books podcasts
courses and a lot of trial and error And here's
what's really been shocking to me Managing money
and being a business owner is actually incredibly
creative as a practice It's iterative It's
experimental It's exactly what we as artists are
really good at That realization was transformative
The myth that you either need to be a creative
brain or a money brain is absolute BS designed
to keep us financially disempowered And I say this
as someone who really believed that for a long
time that because I was creative I could not
be financially astute And once I started to
treat my art practice as a business knowing
my worth understanding my finances learning to
negotiate everything started to change I went
from paycheck to paycheck anxiety to having a
month ahead buffer I started to see my income
grow year after year And I finally have been able
to put money aside for investments and retirement
More importantly I took back control of my time
and my value So I'm going to share just a couple
of tools that have changed everything for me
around money First there's YNAB You need a budget
This app completely transformed my relationship
with money It's a flexible budgeting system that
works with your creative life not against
it Using YNAB I finally broke out from the
paycheck-to paycheck cycle and built a financial
buffer that gives me peace of mind and also helps
me have money to invest in my businesses and
my personal life I'm going to put a link in the
description of this episode that gives you a free
month to try out YNAB There's also a wonderful
podcast called Budget Nerds that dives deep into
using YNAB the theory behind it its ethos and how
to use it effectively Second is the profit first
method If you're running your art as a business
which you absolutely should be if you're trying
to make money off of it this system will change
your business life The book by Mike Michalowicz,
breaks down a simple but revolutionary approach
to managing cash flow And there are three more
books that I cannot recommend enough The Financial
Feminist by Tori Dunlap The Personal MBA by Josh
Kaufman and a surprisingly interesting book about
contracts for artists and other creatives by
Sarah Connley Odenkirk Remember finance is not
a monolith Find voices that resonate with you
but also explore diverse perspectives Just like
art there are so many approaches to finance and to
managing money It is actually a creative practice
Unlike much of the messaging we've received
growing up look I want to be really clear about
something I've gone from being terrified avoidant
of money to feeling completely in control of it
I know what money is how to make more of it how
to manage it and how to use it to create the life
and the art practice that I want This is not about
selling out or compromising your values It's about
empowering yourself It's about sustainability
It's about ensuring that your creative voice can
continue to be heard If you're someone who's been
afraid of money or finance I want you to hear this
You can have a good relationship with money You
deserve financial literacy And your art practice
will be stronger not weaker when you're not
constantly stressed out about survival Oh and if
you're someone who's dealing with what I call punk
damage that anti- capitalist mindset that makes
you feel guilty about wanting financial stability
drop a comment below I might make a whole episode
about working through that specifically because
it's something I know very well and it's a
topic that's very close to my heart Thank you for
watching and remember your financial education is
a part of your artistic practice Don't let anyone
tell you otherwise and your art is a spell and it
will change your life and the world around you
Bye Thank you for watching your art is a spell
Please sign up for our newsletter by going to
yourartisaspell.com I will also be creating
an episode in a couple of weeks where I will
be answering your art related career education
witchy whatever comes to mind questions on this
episode You can send me questions by sending me
an email or by going to speakpipe.com/yourartisaspell
If you're watching this on YouTube
I want to invite you to subscribe and to like
this video and leave a comment And if you are
listening on a podcast streaming platform I want
to invite you to subscribe there and to leave me a
review I will be picking someone in the second
to last episode of season 1 to receive a free
30 minute tarot reading with me from the names of
people who leave me reviews And remember your art
is needed now more than ever We need your voice
your presence and your power here on this planet