Your Art Is A Spell

What happens when a society decides an education is only worth funding if it yields an immediate corporate paycheck?

In this episode, we unpack the dangerous federal student loan policy direction tying student loan access to graduate earning thresholds, putting fields like fine art, music, therapy, social work, counseling, and early childhood education directly in the crosshairs. This isn’t just an abstract economic debate about debt; it is a structural move that determines who gets to tell stories, be a part of creative culture, who can afford to care for others, and who gets to dream beyond basic survival.

We explore the reality behind these artistic education loan restrictions, why underpaid labor does not equal low-value work, how gatekeeping artistic expression degrees threatens marginalized voices, making art as luxury, and what we can do to build interdependence, mutual support, care systems, and cultural resistance.

What We Cover

• The policy shift: Tying federal student student loan policy aid to post-grad salary thresholds
• Why equating market price with human value deepens societal inequality
• How cutting aid for creative and care fields gentrifies culture and silences working-class voices
• Moving from survival mode into collective imagination
• Practical ways to support creative culture, cultural workers, fight systemic gatekeeping, and build community alternatives
• If this conversation resonated with you, share it with an artist, therapist, teacher, or friend who needs to hear it.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: The impact of education policies on society
02:01 The importance of culture, art, and care work
03:58 The implications of restricting access to creative fields
06:02 The cultural role of art, music, and storytelling
07:54 The economic undervaluation of care and creative labor
10:00 The importance of advocacy and policy change
11:52 Building community support and interdependence
13:57 Dreaming of a more inclusive and creative future
16:01 Conclusion: Valuing and supporting cultural and care work

Community & Links
Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/yourartisaspell

💌 Join the Mutant Magic newsletter and membership space: 
https://mutant-magic.com

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

We can still make art in the darkest of times, and that might be exactly when we need it most.

When you feel depleted, scared, or overwhelmed by collective dread, play and sanctuary are deep, vital resources we still own. They don’t cost a dime, they require no permission, and no oppressive system can take them from your spirit. Reclaiming imagination one artwork at a time.

In this episode of Your Art Is A Spell, we open a living creative sanctuary. We examine how media algorithms and authoritarian rhetoric weaponize fear to exhaust our nervous systems—and why reclaiming your imagination is an act of counter-insurgency. Then, we step directly into a 15-minute co-creation ritual using accessible, free digital tools to transmute heaviness into intuitive play.

Whether you pull out paper and a ballpoint pen and have intentional image making, open up a digital art practice, hum a sound loop, or simply soak in the audio while resting, you are warmly invited into this circle.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Art as a Response to Darkness
02:52 The Reality of Our Current Moment
04:19 Imagining a Collective Future
05:54 Art as a Sacred Boundary and Spell
06:25 The Power of Joy and Play in Repressive Times
07:30 Starting the Creative Practice
08:10 Using Childhood Joy as Inspiration
09:30 Expressing Emotions Through Art
11:03 Layering and Building in Digital Art
12:54 Drawing and Imagination
14:20 Adding Depth and Contrast
16:50 Narratives in Abstract Art
18:50 Working with Shapes and Colors
19:58 Using Tools for Depth and Dimension
21:41 Knowing When to Pause
22:50 The Body and Art as a Healing Practice
23:35 Quick Creative Practices for Daily Life
24:57 Your Art as a Sovereign Act
25:12 Community and Sharing Your Art
26:18 Join the Community and Final Thoughts

Connect & Support the Magic

• Join the Patreon: Support the podcast and become part of the Spellcaster Circle at patreon.com/yourartisaspell
• Newsletter & Updates: Sign up at mutant-magic.com for event news and collaborations.
• Share What You Made: Post your piece—messy, digital, analog, or unfinished—and tag me on Instagram at @edgarfabianfrias !
• Listen on the Go: Your Art Is A Spell is streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms.

If this conversation brought a little more space into your ribs, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs sanctuary today. Every interaction is a spell that amplifies our collective web.

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

Why do you feel burned out even when you're "doing everything right"? In this episode of Your Art Is a Spell, host Edgar Fabián Frías breaks down why burnout and exhaustion are often not personal failures, but signs of extraction: from your labor, your attention, your money, and your imagination.

This episode reframes what it really means to protect your energy. Instead of another spiritual bypass about cutting cords or raising your vibration, Edgar grounds the conversation in material reality: rising gas prices, corporate profits, environmental racism, and the attention economy, and asks what genuine protection looks like when the thing draining you is systemic, not personal.

You'll learn a five-part framework for reclaiming your energy — name, return, retrieve, redirect, and join — plus a guided meditative practice with journaling prompts you can return to anytime:

What is mine?

What is not mine?

What do I return today?

What comes back to me?

This episode is for artists, multi-passionates, outsiders, working-class creatives, and anyone trying to build a life and a practice inside systems that were never designed to hold all of who they are.

If this episode resonates, leave a comment with one thing you're calling back to yourself, subscribe for more episodes on art, magic, and empowerment, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

🔗 Join the private membership Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yourartisaspell
🔗 Sign up for the free newsletter: https://mutant-magic.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Rethinking Protection in a Systemic World
02:22 Protection in Spiritual Practice and Its Limitations
03:15 Protection Becomes Private Responsibility
04:26 Material Reality of Systemic Oppression and Environmental Racism
07:15 The Structural Wound and Personal Diagnosis
08:17 Agency, Boundaries, and Locating the Problem
09:26 Visible Arrangements of Power and Their Impact
10:48 Environmental Racism and Disparities in Exposure
11:36 Climate Catastrophe and Specific Industry Roles
12:29 Communities as Sites of Resistance and Knowledge
13:36 The Attention Economy and Catastrophe Fatigue
14:47 Protection as Discernment: Setting Boundaries
16:14 The Five Movements of a Protection Spell
19:11 Collective Power and Mutual Aid
22:37 Material Acts of Power and Closure
23:56 Acknowledging Crisis Without Surrendering Imagination
24:37 The Power of Relationships and Collective Action
25:19 Supporting Art as a Spell and Community Engagement

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Rethinking Protection in a Systemic World
02:22 Protection in Spiritual Practice and Its Limitations
03:15 Protection Becomes Private Responsibility
04:26 Material Reality of Systemic Oppression and Environmental Racism
07:15 The Structural Wound and Personal Diagnosis
08:17 Agency, Boundaries, and Locating the Problem
09:26 Visible Arrangements of Power and Their Impact
10:48 Environmental Racism and Disparities in Exposure
11:36 Climate Catastrophe and Specific Industry Roles
12:29 Communities as Sites of Resistance and Knowledge
13:36 The Attention Economy and Catastrophe Fatigue
14:47 Protection as Discernment: Setting Boundaries
16:14 The Five Movements of a Protection Spell
19:11 Collective Power and Mutual Aid
22:37 Material Acts of Power and Closure
23:56 Acknowledging Crisis Without Surrendering Imagination
24:37 The Power of Relationships and Collective Action
25:19 Supporting Art as a Spell and Community Engagement

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

In this episode, Ed Gomez shares the inspiring story of the Mexicali Biennial, exploring how artists can create their own platforms and challenge borders, both physical and metaphorical, through art and activism. We delve into themes of border fence politics, collective trauma, creative expression, social commentary, hauntings, paranormal borders, and the power of artistic agency.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to the Mexicali Biennial and its significance
02:25 Ed Gomez's background and artistic journey
06:39 Themes of formal and conceptual art practices
09:37 The paranormal borders project and its relevance
10:36 History and origins of the Mexicali Biennial
14:24 The role of biennials in art activism and critique
16:54 Building a community and sustaining the project
19:29 The publication 'Art Actions and Exchanges'
22:18 The future of border art and cultural exchange
28:55 The theme of this year's Paranormal Borders Biennial
36:23 Artists' agency and creating their own opportunities
43:44 The border as a haunted space and collective trauma
52:02 Art as a spell and a tool for change
53:10 Closing thoughts: What do you want to create?

Learn more about the Mexicali Biennial by going to their website:
http://mexicalibiennial.org/

Or follow them on Instagram
 ⁨@mexicalibiennial⁩  

Love this show? Support us by becoming a member on Patreon:
patreon.com/yourartisaspell 

💌 Join the Mutant Magic newsletter and membership space: 
https://mutant-magic.com

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

In this episode of Your Art is a Spell, Eli, The Gender Doula, shares insights into his journey and the significance of gender exploration. He discusses the role of rituals in supporting individuals through gender transitions and the launch of his new book, 'Gender Rituals.' 

Eli emphasizes the importance of community support and the concept of trans audacity in creating change. The conversation highlights the need for inclusive spaces for gender exploration and the impact of Eli's non-clinical support with transition care and transgender health for individuals and communities. Showing us how desire is more important than dysphoria when it comes to transgender medicine and guiding transitions for trans and gender nonconforming people. 

Learn more about Eli at: 
https://www.thegenderdoula.com

Get his new book Gender Rituals: Creating a Sacred Space for Your Body, Your Gender, and Your Becoming
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/817297/gender-rituals-by-eli-lawliet/

If you're in Portland and would like to attend Eli's event, get more info here: 
https://seagrapeapothecary.com/collections/events/products/09-18-2026-shedding-old-skins-a-name-and-pronoun-release-ritual

Edgar mentions that they are an LMFT and are able to support folks with accessing gender affirming care in California via their telehealth therapy practice, learn more at: 
https://www.edgarfabianfrias.com/gender-affirming-care

00:00 - Desire Over Dysphoria: Intro to Eli The Gender Doula
01:08 - What Is a Gender Doula? Non-Clinical Transition Support Explained
02:56 - How a Gender Doula Works: Clients, Families & Community Rituals
04:10 - Eli's Journey: From Transgender History PhD to Becoming The Gender Doula
08:16 - The Genesis of The Gender Doula Practice (2020 & Going Virtual)
11:47 - Beyond the Medical Model: A Holistic Approach to Gender Identity
15:55 - Desire Over Dysphoria: Why Desire Is the North Star for Transition
17:43 - Announcing Gender Rituals: Eli's New Book (Out August 25th)
21:50 - What Are Gender Rituals? Rituals for HRT, Surgery & Life Thresholds
26:00 - Solo vs Community Gender Rituals: Name & Pronoun Change Ceremony
29:20 - Trans Audacity: How Ritual Helps Us SurTHRIVE
31:29 - Gender Exploration Is For Everyone (Not Just Transgender Folks)
33:03 - Connect with Eli: Website, Instagram & Ask The Gender Doula
35:58 - Final Reflections: Your Art Is a Spell

💌 Join the Mutant Magic newsletter and membership space: 
https://mutant-magic.com

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

Feeling creatively stuck? In this episode of Your Art Is a Spell, I share how I use tarot not for prediction, but as a creative technology — a way to reignite your art practice when inspiration runs dry. 

We'll walk through three simple practices: pulling a theme card to set the direction of your work, calling in a support card when a project feels heavy, and a two-card transition spread for when you're starting something new. Featuring the Liberation Tarot, Missing Witches, and Travel Tarot decks.

This is for artists who want to make their practice a ritual — not another obligation. No divination experience needed.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to tarot as a creative tool
02:04 Tarot as a collective artwork and energy
03:05 Select Your Tarot or Oracle Deck(s)
04:50 Using Tarot For A Creative Block With The Missing Witches Deck Of Oracles
09:03 Asking For Creative Help From The Tarot Deck Using the Liberation Tarot 
09:45 Showing The Mutant Card (featuring me!)
11:25 Asking tarot for support featuring adrienne maree brown's Healer of Vessels
15:45 Two Card Transition Tarot for Creativity With Travel Tarot by Jeff Hinshaw & Lonely Planet
18:40 Two cards pulled for this reading with intuitive interpretation
21: 05 Water is in both cards and is a symbol of transformation, life, healing, change
22:39 Reading about the two cards from the Travel Tarot
26:33 Conclusion for Video

💌 Join the Mutant Magic newsletter and membership space: 
https://mutant-magic.com

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

To watch the earlier episode of Your Art Is A Spell with Travel Tarot's Jeff Hinshaw aka Cosmic Cousins
https://youtu.be/Wiwqxi7OwNI?si=AVSaG5d97Nh0xlZN

Someone is profiting off the idea that your pain makes better art, and it's not you. In this episode of Your Art As A Spell, Edgar breaks down who actually benefits when artists believe suffering is the price of being "real": the art market, institutions, and even the wellness industry that profits from healing the wounds artists were told they needed in the first place.

We dig into how the "tortured genius" myth was built inside a white, Western, mostly male tradition, yet is still used to measure marginalized artists, who are often expected to turn their identity and suffering into content just to be taken seriously. Edgar also reframes the art block: not a crisis or a personal failure, but a normal, cyclical part of the creative process that sometimes just means you need rest.

The takeaway: joy, play, and rest aren't the opposite of serious art, they're acts of resistance against a system that needs you depleted to keep producing.

💌Join the free community & newsletter: mutant-magic.com
🔗 Support the podcast on Patreon: patreon.com/yourartisaspell

#ArtistWellness #CreativeProcess #ArtBlock #MutantMagic #ArtistsOnYouTube

Chapters

00:00 Who profits from artists' pain?
02:15 The art market's reliance on trauma narratives
05:00 Navigating sensitivities and gifts as an artist
06:36 Joy and rest as acts of resistance
07:00 Refusing to participate in exploitative systems
08:08 Reframing art blocks as cycles, not failures
09:20 Healing enhances, it doesn't diminish art
10:05 Building supportive artist communities
11:00 Challenging pressure to perform pain
12:06 Your art as a spell and a life changer

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

If you feel stuck because you think you can't draw, the truth is you don't have a skill problem, you have an artistic mindset problem. In this episode of Your Art Is A Spell, we dismantle the myth that technical perfection is required to be a "real" artist, and reveal what the contemporary art world actually values.

Growing up, many of us were told we were "messy" or couldn't color within the lines. We internalized this conditioning, believing that high-level art requires flawless execution. But surviving UC Berkeley's MFA program and working as an art consultant taught me a different truth: institutional gatekeepers care far more about your intellectual curiosity, your personal archives, and your world-building than they do about your brushstrokes.

We look at recent exhibitions from Guadalupe Maravilla, Sadie Barnette, and Lizzie Fitch & Ryan Trecartin to prove that the highest levels of the art world reward a powerful Art Vision over traditional drawing skills.

Key Topics

The difference between technical skill and art vision
Personal story of childhood art experiences
Critique of traditional art education and standards
Examples of contemporary artists redefining technique
Steps to unlearn limiting beliefs about art
The importance of intuition and ideas over perfection
How to develop and trust your own art vision
The role of experimentation and failure in art growth

Timestamps

00:00 Why You Think You Can't Draw (The Skill vs. Mindset Myth)
01:30 The Childhood Trauma of "Coloring Outside the Lines"
03:47 How to Unlearn Conditioning & Build Your Art Vision
05:10 The UC Berkeley MFA Secret: Technique vs. Concepts
08:12 The Art Consultant Lens: World Building Over Technique
09:00 Guadalupe Maravilla at the Hammer Museum
10:19 Sadie Barnette’s "How to Fly" at CAAM
11:50 Lizzie Fitch & Ryan Trecartin at Morán Morán Gallery
13:05 You Are Allowed to Be Messy (Final Transformation)

Read the full "10 Mindset Shifts for Artists" guide here: https://mutant-magic.com

Check out the exact portfolio I used to get into UC Berkeley's MFA Art Practice Program: 
https://youtu.be/UhDdcQqWrS4?si=eebvwWxxvoM4ipo2

Want to see my cover letter & personal statement?  
💌 Join the Mutant Magic newsletter and membership space: 
https://mutant-magic.com

Join us over on Patreon & become a part of the Spellcasters Circle
https://www.patreon.com/c/yourartisaspell

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

In this episode of Your Art Is A Spell, Edgar Fabián Frías talks with artist and musician Colin Frangicetto Circa Survive (also known as ADHD, Space Case, and ColinCosmic) about resisting the pressure to become a single “brand” and staying true to your multi-passionate, witchy, chaotic creative self. They explore identity, pseudonyms, art practice, digital collage, abstraction, retrocausality, AuDHD, Patreon, full-time art life, and how to make expansive art in a world of algorithms, genres, and rigid systems that want you small and easy to consume.

00:00 – Intro: The Algorithm Wants a Brand. Your Soul Wants Chaos
Artists, witches, multi-passionates vs niche, brand, and algorithm pressure.

02:33 – Meet Colin Frangicetto 
Multidisciplinary artist, musician of the band Circa Survive, and visual artist with many names: ADHD, SpaceCase, ColinCosmic.

05:28 – Monikers, Personas, and New Band Energy
Why artists use pseudonyms, “shiny new” energy, and resisting being easy to consume.

09:58– Leaving the Old Identity: Courage and Collapse
Devastation, closure, and choosing new creative identities despite industry expectations and branding.

12:24– Colin sharing about his journey creating digital art, Hic et Nunc, tezos, cryptoart, and where his name ADHD came from. 

14:49 – The transience of everything and artists obsessing over being remembered and trying to curate how that will happen 

16:06– Challenging the fear of Being Forgotten, Spiritual Surrender, Sacred Comedy
LSD experience, collectivism vs individual identity, releasing legacy anxiety.

21:46– ADHD Hyper Layered Art Practice: Collage, Inset Series, Digital Hoarding
Screenshots, archiving, multi-layered digital collage, excavation, and abstraction.

25:15– Retrocausality, Determinism, and Creative Flow
Trusting the subconscious, letting go of over-editing, and escaping aesthetic boxes.

29:18– Research Mode, Input/Output, and Capitalism Fatigue
Experimentation, films, books, archiving, and struggling with releasing work in a formal market.

32:58– Circa Survive Hiatus, Reunion, and Performing as Spiritual Reset
Band breakup and return, friendship mending, loud music as church-like catharsis.

35:28 – Full-Time Artist Life, Grief, Stability, and Patreon
Losing Benny, carving time for humans and animals, sustaining full-time art, and Colin’s Patreon (colincosmic).

42:52– Reflections from Edgar about conversation with Colin
Being in tune with our resistance and with what we need to support those parts of us that feel resistant or afraid. The burden of being known as an artist in a certain way and the lift and hard work it takes to build another persona or career. I also share about Mutant Magic and how it connects to my own need to have a container / shield to share vulnerable parts of myself. 

Check out Colin's Patreon at: 
https://www.patreon.com/colincosmic

💌 Join the Mutant Magic newsletter and membership space: 
https://mutant-magic.com

🌐 Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com 

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar 
www.therapywithedgar.com

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

If this episode supported you, please share it with a friend who needs to hear it. And leave us a review, it helps more artists, witches, and weirdos hear this podcast! Your art is a spell, and it will change the world around us.

Are you feeling stuck in your art practice or making work in the margins of your everyday life?
In this episode of Your Art is a Spell, we explore why artist residencies and fellowships aren't just for "traditional" or highly funded creators—they are powerful portals that can fundamentally change what feels possible for your career and your nervous system.

I’m sharing the raw, behind-the-scenes reality of my recent three-month residency portal through Berlin, Warsaw, Vienna, and New York. From working with sacred archives and somatic displacement in Europe to timeline jumping with Web3 and NFTs in NYC, we cover how these protected containers can pull you out of survival mode and place your art back at the center. We also get real about the hard parts: loneliness, logistical challenges, and the heavy energetic toll of confronting historical trauma in institutional spaces.

If you are an interdisciplinary, working-class, neurodivergent, queer, or wonderfully weird artist wondering if you belong in these spaces—this map is for you.

✨ JOIN MUTANT MAGIC ✨
Ready for more direct support with artist statements, residency applications, and building a sustainable, unconventional creative life? Join my new Ghost-based newsletter and membership space. (If you are already on my mailing list, you've automatically been added to the free tier, Mutant Dispatches!)

https://mutant-magic.com

Thumbnail photo by Maximilian Rauschenbach | Künstlerhaus Bethanien

00:00 Intro: Why Artist Residencies Will Change Your Life
02:39 What Actually is an Artist Residency?
07:51 Early Proof: How Fellowships Shape Art Careers
09:57 My 3-Month European Residency Portal
11:33 Berlin: Sacred Archives and Confronting History
13:58 Warsaw: Displacement, Rituals, and the Nervous System
17:15 New York: NFTs, Web3, and Timeline Jumping
18:53 The Hidden Magic of Artistic Uncertainty
20:45 Reality Check: The Hard Parts of Artist Fellowships
22:23 Is an Artist Residency Right for Your Practice?
25:43 Final Advice: Taking the Leap and Applying

To Watch / Listen to More Episodes from Your Art Is A Spell
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVN8TPFy9dYKoNr4LjNV9yDajN-ILKNR&si=1WF6GkfQh2pGfrzl

To send me a voice note
https://www.speakpipe.com/YouArtIsASpell

To learn more about me and my art
www.yourartisaspell.com

To learn about my private practice Therapy With Edgar
www.therapywithedgar.com

Follow me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarfabianfrias/

🕊️ Follow Me on BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/edgarfabianfrias.org

If this episode supported you, please share it with an artist friend who needs to hear this. And leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts, doing so helps us expand our web and helps more artists, just like you, get this message. Your art is a spell, and it will change the world around us.