A note at forty-five 📬

Five years ago today, I sent the first email to this list. Today is my forty-fifth birthday, so I thought I’d send another update. There are 584 words below.

I once listened to a radio interview with the writer John McPhee, then in his eighties, who claimed that the preoccupations of his many essays and books are the same subjects that fascinated him as a teenager. In the last few years, I see myself enacting a similar turn toward my earlier ways of being in and appreciating the world—a return, let’s say.

So my midlife crisis hasn’t involved a sports car. Thus far, it has looked like going to hardcore shows with friends; scheming about how to form and support small communities of creative people; giving in to my autodidactic impulses and reading and writing about whatever interests me; and trying to transcend geography by reaching out to people across the world who inspire me.

As a teenager, I came to punk rock and the internet nearly simultaneously. Ever since, I’ve favored independent culture and participating in communities shaped by passions. And now, as I hit middle age, I’ve found a wonderful new vehicle for making a life that continues to involve both.

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The email I sent five years ago mentioned my friend Ross Zurowski, who had designed the site you are now looking at. Two years ago, he proposed turning an idea I had about supporting artists with useful inventory software into an actual product. We’ve spent fifteen months mapping my knowledge of the art world onto his grasp of database structures, his penchant for writing good code, and his skills as a designer.

The result is Valise, a fast, simple inventory system that helps artists feel calm and in control as they and their work move through the world.

Having known artists as a writer, editor, curator, nonprofit director, and—last but not least—husband, I appreciate the value of the “boring admin” side of a creative practice. I also know not many artists are naturally inclined toward that work. Some have no system; others default to spreadsheets; others throw up their hands and reluctantly pay exorbitant amounts for fancy tools meant for galleries. We built Valise for explicitly for artists, and have priced it accessibly.

My birthday wish is that you check out Valise’s website (and, to see more concretely how it works, try this three-minute demo video). Please share it with the artists in your life! Ross and I will be here, watching our shared inbox, ready to help whomever comes our way gain some peace of mind. In a world missing structural support for artists, this is our small way to help.

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I don’t often think long-term, but with the launch of Valise I’m now trying to slowly reorient my work life so that it’s my primary effort. It also feels like my family life is moving into a new phase. This could just be that we have two babysitters where previously we had none! Or it could be that our kids, now five and nearly nine, are becoming themselves in new ways—ways that enable and encourage us to become new to ourselves, too.

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I’m bad about collating the various projects I do in one place. I’m still writing the weekly Frontier Magazine, now past one hundred issues; I’m editing and writing for the tech company Notion and for numerous museums, arts organizations, and architecture firms. In late July I summarized what I’d done to date in 2024; here’s a link, if you’re curious.

Thank you for indulging me. I’d be delighted to hear from you, if you have a moment.

Sitting next to an open window,
Brian

Image: My kids at Kew-Balmy Beach, Toronto, in August