The scenic
route. ↗︎

Tell us about your experience (lived, professional, or both) with precarious, gig, informal, or unprotected work. What draws you to the question of how this work is organized and supported?

My path into independent work wasn’t linear. More than a decade ago, I was pursuing a BFA at New Mexico State University. My parents worried about whether an art degree could provide a stable future. I chose it anyway, but carried some of that uncertainty with me.

I enjoyed studying art, but kept wondering: who is teaching us how to build a life around this? I wasn’t learning how to price my work, find clients, or build a business beyond the “starving artist” story I had absorbed. Eventually, I dropped out of university without a clear plan.

There were several years of figuring things out. I worked as a groundskeeper at a private sculpture garden and did interior painting independently. Seeing creative friends build careers in digital marketing helped something click: I could build a creative path in my own way. That became my business, ASCNSN. In the early years, courier services and Amazon Flex provided supplemental income while I built and stabilized the business. I no longer do that work.

For about six years, freelance, contract, and creative business work has been my livelihood. I value the freedom, but have had to build much of the support myself: training, equipment, benefits, mentorship, income stability, and the next opportunity. Independent work can also be deeply siloed without coworkers or a professional community.

Climb Hire is one example. I sought out its workforce training program to build paid search marketing skills. It also brought mentorship and peer community.

That contrast draws me to questions about how independent work is organized and supported. I’ve seen how different it feels when some support is built in rather than left entirely to the individual.

What big ideas or exciting solutions are you actively working on or just curious about?

I’ve spent a lot of energy figuring out how to make independent work sustainable for myself, which has not always left much room to step back and imagine something different. I don’t have a big solution or a pitch deck for one. What I do have are questions and a few directions I’m curious about, and I like that this fellowship makes room for those ideas to take shape with other people instead of expecting me to arrive with the answer.

As an artist and visual communicator, I believe creative people help shape culture by helping people see familiar things in new ways. I’m interested in how that same creative power could help us imagine better systems of support for independent workers.

I’m curious about shared infrastructure: cooperatives or networks where independent workers could pool resources, access training and benefits, share administrative support, and learn from one another instead of building everything alone.

I’m also interested in how technology could support those systems rather than replace the human relationships underneath them. Could new tools make shared resources, knowledge, or support more accessible while still preserving community and human creativity?

What strengths would you bring into this group of 8 people, and where would you need support to build your capacity?

When I first joined the Work//Shift Q&A, I left wondering whether I belonged in this fellowship. I heard people talking about policy, organizing, and systems change, and my first thought was that I didn't have that background.

The more I reflected on it, though, the more I realized I was discounting what I do bring. I'm an artist, designer, strategist, and visual communicator who has spent years living many of the challenges we're talking about. I naturally look for patterns, build creative frameworks, and help turn complicated ideas into something people can see, understand, and connect with.

I'm also thoughtful about group dynamics. I listen closely, ask questions, and try to create enough structure for people to contribute without forcing everyone into the same way of thinking. I value breath, mindfulness, and grounding practices as ways of helping people arrive more fully in a shared space. I think I bring both reflection and a kind of creative facilitation to a group.

Where I need support is in the areas that initially made me question whether I belonged: labor history, policy, organizing, cooperative models, and how systems change actually happens. I especially want support moving from personal experience and reflection toward collective action. I know these challenges intimately at the individual level. I want to learn how to connect that lived experience to change that reaches beyond my own business or career.