The Practice and The Job
Making work and making rent
Hello and welcome to the latest PROCSSS newsletter! It's been about a month since the last installment and I have some thoughts to share about balancing my creative practice (Nonstndrd Creative Projects) and my day job. I also have updates on two new zines being released later this month, a new project I'm launching next year, and some recent art/photography. This is a packed one my friends so let's dive in!
"Working" Artist
I've been wanting to write about how I manage a growing art practice and a full time job for a long time. I'm certainly not the only person thats mastered this exhausting juggling act but not many people discuss it in the public sphere. I suspect its because it goes against the mainstream archetype of what the life of an artist/creative looks like, shattering the fictional narrative perpetuated on social media by many.
This bifurcated reality has been my norm from the very beginning. I had to find a way to both pursue my ambitions AND support myself and my family. Along the way I developed tactics that I'd like to share which enabled me to be as, if not more, productive than some of my peers in a different situation.
My ability to juggle the inherently oppositional goals of creative freedom and the traditional workplace success has been largely dependent on the jobs I have worked. I realized that the types of jobs that I pursued required some proximity to my artistic ambitions. In the past that meant working at an art school for almost a decade, which provided an opportunity to make connections, unprecedented flexibility/support for my own work, and constant creative inspiration. It currently means being a visual designer at another institution for the past few years, which has enabled me to sharpen my design/presentation game in ways that overlap with my creative practice as well. In both cases, the key has been to stay as disciplined when it comes to my own work as I am in the workplace.
In each situation I have had to create a framework within my daily routine for my practice. For years that meant using my lunch breaks as photo sessions, taking advantage of my surroundings to build my portfolio. I built my entire portfolio of work based on documenting the areas I've worked in, walking an hour a day and meticulously recording the people and structures in the area. In fact, one of the reasons that I accepted my current job is my office's proximity to South Los Angeles. As my responsibilities grew in my personal life, I also found the need to set aside time specifically to work on my creative endeavors. The trick is to avoid burnout, which is a constant threat to be aware of. It's an exhausting but necessary grind that works for me, I hope that sharing a little about my own process is beneficial to anyone crafting or refining their own.
Portraits & Bus Stops (New Zines!)
Zine publishing update!
I have two new publications dropping later this month. Bus Stops (2016-2019) is the second photography zine of the year. I'm really excited about this one, bus stops have always fascinated me and this work is from one of my favorite time periods. If you were a paid subscriber to the now defunct, separate Archival Recordings newsletter, this one is coming in the mail directly to you. It will be available to everyone else at the Nonstndrd Creative Store later this month.
The second zine, Portraits (2025), is a collection of collage portraits from this year. If you follow Nonstndrd.Creative on social media, you are probably familiar with this work. It will be the first time this work will be available in print.
Archival Recordings: Rick's Fish Market
Another L.A. institution bites the dust. I learned of the closing of Rick's Fish Market online reading an article in L.A. Taco. Although it never reached much notoriety outside of the neighborhood it was a fixture for locals and people who used to live in the area, like myself. I photographed the structure this past week as I made my way through my old Mid-City neighborhood.
Updates
New artist statement and a dedicated page for the "Redacted Topographies" series of collage illustrations.
This body of work is the culmination my evolution as an artist over the past 7 years or so, tying my photography and fine art practices together in a way that enhances them both.
Direct link to page here: https://www.nonstndrd.com/redacted-topographies/
The Return of Snapshot Galleria!
I created a new logo for Snapshot Galleria, a photography newsletter/zine that I'm (re)launching in early 2026! From 2014-2017, I ran an online film photography magazine with my good friends Erwin Recinos and Luis Torres. We shared work & interviewed photographers we admired & respected, purely for the love of the medium. I recently got the domain and insta handle back and will be starting it back up early next year.
More info soon, but in the meantime, follow along on Instagram for updates at https://www.instagram.com/snapshotgalleria/
Peace! Look forward to the year end recap and zine release information later this month.
-Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin
Nonstndrd Creative Projects