UNMASK
The initiation where artists stop performing to be liked and reveal their true power.
5 days. 4 Artists Only.
November 9-13 | Nested in the High Sierra Mountains of YosemiteTrying to fit in is exhausting
There comes a point in an artist's life where being good at what we do isn't the question anymore.
We've built the skills. We've worked the jobs.
We've collected years of experience.
We've made things we're proud of.
We've also made a lot of things for other people.
And somewhere inside all of that is the work that's ours.
The ideas that keep coming back.
The project that keeps getting pushed to next month.
The direction that makes complete sense internally and is strangely difficult to explain to anyone else.
The version of our creative life that feels much bigger than what we're currently allowing ourselves to have.
That's the inspiration behind UNMASK.
UNMASK begins the moment you decide you’re done operating this way.
We're living IN a New Renaissance for Artists.
Creative industries are changing.
The internet has completely changed how artists build careers.
We have more ability than ever to make our own work, find our own audience and create opportunities outside traditional systems.
And that amount of freedom comes with its own question.
What the fuck do I actually want?
Because once we're no longer waiting for someone to choose us, we're responsible for choosing ourselves.
That's exciting.
It's also confronting.
There isn't always a clear path anymore.
For many of us, that's exactly where we are.
Experienced enough to know what we're capable of.
Restless enough to know there's more.
And ready to figure out what that actually looks like.
That's why I created UNMASK.
UNMASK is an intimate creative retreat built around a question I'm deeply interested in myself:
What happens when we stop editing ourselves before the work even gets made?
When we stop trying to predict what will sell and perform for the algorithm.
What makes sense for our industry. What people expect from us.
What fits neatly inside the identity we've already trusted..
And we actually look at what's been trying to come through for years.
Because sometimes the next era of our work requires admitting that we've changed.
Our taste, priorities, ambitions..
The work even changed.
Maybe we want more: creative freedom, ownership, wealth, visibility, impact or experimentation.
More time making our own work.
More room to be weird.
More room to make something simply because we can't stop thinking about it.
More time to PLAY.
UNMASK is a place to explore that seriously.
This is about the artist underneath the mask.
Before the professional title. Before the niche. Before the Instagram bio.
Before all the ways we've learned to describe what we do so other people understand it.
There's a person making the work.
And sometimes we've spent so much time building the career that we haven't checked in with her in a while.
What does she want now? What is she bored with?
What's she obsessed with?
What does she secretly want to make?
What parts of herself has she his? That have yet to made it into the work?
What would happen if they did?
That's where things start getting interesting.
We make art here.
UNMASK isn't three days of just talking about our creativity.
We're create-ing.
Exploring our creative identity.
We’ll be diving deep into our own individual versions of success, what it means to live in alignment with our true artistic self, and hold the standard without losing who we are.
We’ll go over visibility, making money from our art, our careers and what we actually want to feel from them.
We'll look at the ideas we've been sitting on.
The projects we've been avoiding.
The parts of our work that feel the most alive.
We'll have time together.
Time alone. Time outside.
Conversations around the fire.
Good food. Music. Forest.
A space to notice what becomes obvious when everyday life isn't demanding our attention every five minutes.
And yes, some things might get uncomfortable.
Because being honest about what we want tends to do that.
Maybe the career we've spent years building isn't the final destination.
Maybe we've become incredibly good at something we don't want to spend the rest of our lives doing.
Maybe the personal project we've treated like a side project is actually the work.
Maybe we're tired of waiting for an industry to give us permission.
Maybe we want to make more money.
Maybe we want to be known.
Maybe we want to make something completely fucking weird.
We get to admit that here.
I'm inside this conversation too.
I've spent years working professionally as an artist.
I've made things for major productions and other people's visions.
I've built skills I'm incredibly proud of.
I've also watched the industries I've worked in change.
I've questioned what I want the next twenty years of my creative life to look like.
And what the industry i’ve invested over a decade into will look like..
I've put my own projects aside because paid work was more immediate.
I've wondered what would happen if I gave my own ideas the same level of devotion I've given everyone else's.
Those questions became part of Creative Beast.
And what I offer you to explore in UNMASK.
I don't want to create a retreat where I stand at the front of the room pretending I've solved creativity.
I want to create a room full of serious artists willing to ask better questions about what we're doing with it.
UNMASK is for the moment when "someday" starts feeling ridiculous.
Someday I'll make the project.
Someday I'll put my work out there.
Someday I'll take myself seriously.
Someday I'll build something of my own.
Someday I'll have more time.
Eventually, we have to decide what gets our life now.
That's the threshold we're meeting at.
What happens when we take the mask off?
We get closer to the work.
We get clearer about what belongs to us.
We notice what we've outgrown.
We see the patterns we've been repeating.
We let the strange parts have more room.
We make decisions.
And ideally, we leave with something much more useful than three days of inspiration.
We leave knowing what we're making next.
THE DETAILS
[DATES]
[LOCATION]
[NUMBER OF WOMEN]
[ACCOMMODATIONS]
[FOOD]
[WHAT'S INCLUDED]
[INVESTMENT]
[TRAVEL]
Check-In9:00 – 9:30am
Group Activity11:00am
Lunch Break12:30pm
Creative Workshop2:00pm
Dinner6:30pm
There are things we already know about ourselves that we've been putting off admitting.
There are things we won't know until we make them.
Let's find out.
[REQUEST YOUR INVITATION]