My birth/legal name is Corbin, but I’ve been called many things. I was born in Nebraska and after receiving a BA in Studio Arts in 2007, I moved to NYC on a whim. I didn’t have a job and I knew not a single person beyond my high school buddy that found us a place in Bushwick to live dirt cheap. It was crazy, but I wanted to become an artist…
For me, being an artist was founded by the idea that I could make money from doing something that I loved and I have always loved making a mess. So, I made a LOT of strange messes because I thought by god, some of those messes might be art. People (#artbuyers) saw them only as strange messes so after a few months of burning through my meager savings, I had a long, hard talk with my bank account and decided I needed to look for a real job. I worked at a steakhouse in Tribeca. I interned at an art gallery in Williamsburg. I built shelves. And then, I sold quirky analog film cameras during a Christmas season at Henri Bendel. Turns out, I wasn’t half bad at selling cameras, so the company offered me some work, and then some more work, and then an actual job.
I always intended to go back to making mess at some point but that real job was one of the most influential experiences that I’ve had in my life.
Not only did it center around a super passion of mine, analog photography, it lead me to realize that as much as I enjoy making a mess, I like cleaning up and organizing even more. After many years and many roles, I took the experiences and acumen I developed to start a financial operations studio called Keep Creative, whose mission is to support creative businesses and people with the management of their finances, personnel and operations.
Despite spending most of my days in spreadsheets, I’m still a hardcore creative. Creating music, capturing photographs, crafting furniture, making a mess - these are activities that serve a purpose for me: to underscore how important it is to exercise your creativity, find balance and perhaps most importantly, and to step away from the computer and the financial statements and get dirt on your hands.
Just wash them before you go back to work.
C.
photo courtesy of Kate Matsumoto
https://brokelyn.com/brooklyn-poetry-corbin-sharer/
https://www.format.com/magazine/features/design/creative-relationships
© 2023 Corbin Sharer