So much of what we hear right now is about what is changing, what is closing, what is shifting. In this solo episode, Ekaterina Popova cuts through the noise to focus on what has remained true across every platform, every trend cycle, and every era of the art world: the core principles of getting paid for doing what you love.

Kat takes us back to her teenage years, painting prom backdrops and dance team sets for a hundred dollars at a time, with no connections, no following, and a kind of blissful confidence that the work would find its people. That early experience shaped a belief system that carried her through years of building a creative business, and she traces exactly where that belief started to crack, what planted it back, and what she wishes she had known sooner.

In this episode, Kat shares how her earliest art sales happened long before social media existed, why the doubt she absorbed in art school was some of the most expensive she ever entertained, what the relationship with your own work has to do with whether it ever sells, and how she hired a coach this week with nothing more than an Instagram DM and a clear sense of what she needed.

This one is for the artist who keeps waiting for the right moment, the bigger audience, or the better strategy. The strategy, it turns out, has been the same all along.

Connect with Kat at info@createmagazine.com and follow along at @createmagazine on Instagram.

Submit to our current call for art: https://www.createmagazine.co/call-for-art

What does it actually take to make art and make a living at the same time? This week, Ekaterina Popova sits down with Mason Currey, author of the beloved Daily Rituals series and his brand new book, Making Art and Making a Living (Celadon Books), a rich, research-driven look at how artists across centuries have funded their creative lives.

From day jobs and patrons to inheritances, government grants, and a few schemes that fall into grayer territory, Mason has compiled the stories so many of us have needed to hear. In this conversation, he and Kat explore why community matters more than most creatives realize, how constraints can actually be an artist's greatest asset, and the practical power of reverse engineering the career you actually want.

If you have ever asked yourself whether you are doing this whole creative life thing right, this episode is your answer. Spoiler: you are in very good company.

In this episode:

• Why community and creative scenes have always mattered more than solo genius
• How Mason's entire career grew from a blog post he wrote while procrastinating
• The surprising truth about artists who got everything they wanted, and still couldn't work
• Baudelaire, Whistler, and what history's most dramatic artistic money struggles can teach us about our own
• How to reverse engineer the career you want by studying the people who have it
• Why constraints, including financial ones, are often where the best work comes from
• The power of doing something, even a small, imperfect, DIY version of your vision

Links and resources mentioned:

Making Art and Making a Living by Mason Currey: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250824523/makingartandmakingaliving/

Mason Currey's website and newsletter (Subtle Maneuvers): masonwcurrey.com

Best American Essays series (mentioned by Mason as a career research tool)

Work with Kat + explore Create! Magazine:

Create! Magazine celebrates working artists through features, interviews, and juried open calls. Submit your work, explore available articles, and join the community at createmagazine.co.

Ready to grow your art career with step-by-step guidance? Explore micro courses on marketing, sales, visibility, and more at www.createu.co

Visit www.createmagazine.co and click Programs to learn more.

Private mentorship and coaching with certified master coach, Ekaterina Popova https://espopova.com

If you have been going through a funk, whether it is burnout, a creative slump, seasonal blues, or just feeling stuck, this episode is for you. Kat gets real about the challenges she faced this past winter, including some big personal changes, and shares the honest unglamorous things that helped her climb back out: taking care of her body, dropping what was not serving her, shifting her mindset around showing up, and finding people who cheer her on too.

No toxic positivity here, just real talk and practical perspective for anyone ready to get back on track.

Ready to stop navigating this alone? Kat works with working artists and creative entrepreneurs through private coaching at espopova.com. If you are ready to get back on track with someone genuinely in your corner, learn more and book a session at www.espopova.com.