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WORK TITLE: Your Art Will Save Your Life
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.bethpickens.com/about/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:University of Missouri, Columbia, M.Ed.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Consultant and writer. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, senior program manger; RADAR Productions, San Francisco, managing director; Queer Cultural Center, San Francisco, managing director; independent consultant to artists and arts organizations, Los Angeles, CA. Founder of the San Francisco Food Adventure Club.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Beth Pickens is a consultant and writer based in Los Angeles, California. She holds a master’s in education from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Pickens previously lived in San Francisco and directed the Queer Cultural Center and RADAR Productions. She also held the position of senior program manager at the city’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Pickens currently works as an independent consultant to arts organization and individual artists. She writes grants, assists with strategic planning, and helps the individuals or organizations with creating fundraising opportunities.
In 2018, Pickens released her first book, Your Art Will Save Your Life. In this volume, she offers advice for emerging and established artists. In an interview with Taleen Kali, contributor to the DuMdUm website, Pickens explained: “I started the book back in 2015 or early 2016 because I had no room for more clients and I thought I should write down everything that I do with artists in book form to be able to support more artists beyond my individual consulting practice. Then the election happened and I quickly wrote up a pamphlet for artists called Making Art During Fascism to help my clients and other artists flipping out over Trump.” Pickens continued: “Michelle Tea then said she wanted to edit a series of short texts for Feminist Press along the lines of ‘survival guides’ on different topics and asked if I wanted to write one and I was like: ‘FUCK YEAH,’ so I put together the text I’d written, expanded on my pamphlet, and added more self help style writing. It was a short turnaround and my next book will be longer and go in depth into some of the concepts I introduce in this book.” Pickens also noted: “I originally had an essay about my mother in the book but I took it out at the last moment and swapped it for a list of things art school graduates should do.”
In the book, Pickens encourages artists to keep making their work, even if they are experiencing doubts, confusion, political turmoil, or other difficult circumstances. She acknowledges that many artists have felt disillusioned by the election of Donald Trump and have found it difficult to proceed with their creative endeavors. However, Pickens explains that important artwork can come from situations like this. She recalls the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s and highlights powerful artwork that was created in response to it. In addition to emphasizing the importance of creating, Pickens also discusses the interpersonal needs of artists. She suggests that artists should connect with one another regularly and form a community to help inspire and support one another. Pickens includes recollections of her own experience in the art scene, including her first visit to the Andy Warhol Museum. She remembers being inspired by the people she encountered at the museum and wanting to be near people like them. Pickens credits this experience with planting the seeds for her career as an arts consultant.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer suggested: “This slim self-help book offers modest and straightforward suggestions for surviving and thriving in creative endeavors.” Writing on the Bust website, Crystal Erickson commented: “Though the book is very short, it contains lots of valuable advice and probably wouldn’t be as effective if Pickens had written more on the topic (since writers and artists tend to be procrastinators, it’s better to avoid making the process seem too complicated). That said, I would have enjoyed more advice specifically geared toward writers, considering the author’s decision to annotate the word ‘artist’ to mention her definition includes writers on the book’s first page.” Erickson added: “This book would be the most effective if read when an artist’s just getting started, but it will surely work at any level.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, February 12, 2018, review of Your Art Will Save Your Life, p. 72.
ONLINE
Beth Pickens website, http://www.bethpickens.com/ (August 3, 2018).
Bust, https://bust.com/ (July 15, 2018), Crystal Erickson, review of Your Art Will Save Your Life.
DuMdUm, http://www.dumdumzine.com/ (August 3, 2018), Taleen Kali, author interview.
About Me
I am a Los Angeles-based consultant for artists and arts organizations. I provide career consultation, grant writing, fundraising, and financial, project and strategic planning services for clients throughout the US. I earned my M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Before relocating to Los Angeles in 2014, I was based in San Francisco where I served as Senior Program Manager at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Managing Director of both RADAR Productions and the Queer Cultural Center. I specialize in supporting queer and trans artists, women, and artists of color. I am also the founder of the now-defunct San Francisco Food Adventure Club which gained notoriety for eating a human placenta two ways.
My book Your Art Will Save Your Life is now on sale!
My Approach
I understand artists as people who are deeply, profoundly compelled to be creatively engaged. Making work and creative practice are central to an artist's well-being and how an artist understands and processes being on the planet. I integrate person-centered Rogerian therapy training, financial management and fundraising, feminist analysis and capitalist critique, and goal-oriented actions to move my clients in the direction of their ambition. We focus on both the internal and the external work necessary to build their art career. Inspired by Emily's List which raises early money for pro-choice women candidates running for public office, I understand how 'early money' and opportunities can push my clients' careers ahead.
QUOTED: "I started the book back in 2015 or early 2016 because I had no room for more clients and I thought I should write down everything that I do with artists in book form to be able to support more artists beyond my individual consulting practice. Then the election happened and I quickly wrote up a pamphlet for artists called Making Art During Fascism to help my clients and other artists flipping out over trump."
"Michelle Tea then said she wanted to edit a series of short texts for Feminist Press along the lines of ‘survival guides’ on different topics and asked if I wanted to write one and I was like FUCK YEAH, so I put together the text I’d written, expanded on my pamphlet, and added more self help style writing. It was a short turnaround and my next book will be longer and go in depth into some of the concepts I introduce in this book."
"I originally had an essay about my mother in the book but I took it out at the last moment and swapped it for a list of things art school graduates should do."
Text Message Interview with Beth Pickens, by Taleen Kali
Welcome back to DUM DUM Zine’s Text Message Interviews! This month we interview Beth Pickens, L.A.-based consultant dedicated to supporting and empowering artists, most recently through her self-help book, Your Art Will Save Your Life, out now by Feminist Press.
DUM DUM Zine’s creator Taleen Kali joins Pickens in text message excursions about feminism, making art during fascism, and how to transform today’s art climate. Read on and #GetDUM before the official L.A. reading tonight at Skylight Books, where Pickens will be joined by Allie Liebegott and Michelle Tea.
Taleen Kali (DDZ): Hey Beth! READY to text? What are 3 images that are currently inspiring you?
Beth Pickens (BP):
1. My spouse and I commissioned a piece by Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey. It will be similar to one of the individual panels in this photo of her precious work. I get to pick it up in April and I’m obsessed with imagining it. Lauren’s got a solo exhibition up at MOCA right now and the opening night was gorgeous. This artist is 🔥.
2. My dogs have recently started sleeping together in the same dog bed so I know peace on earth is possible.
3. Like every style icon I admire, I only want to wear Maya Rudolph’s Valentino 2018 Oscar look.
DDZ: OH MY DOG look at them all bundled up. Did they make good writing companions while you were working on “Your Art Will Save Your Life?”
And YESSS Maya! Loved that dress. Currently gushing over St Vincent’s look as well
BP: St. Vincent always looks incredible. I love her.
I work at home in my office and my dogs–if exercised properly–mostly sleep on the couch where my clients normally sit. So they “come to work” and I point a space heater at them while I write 800 grants a day.
DDZ: They must love coming to work. I wonder, do I catch a glimpse of “spooky artist face” on one of them? Halfway joking!
Real talk though: the “spooky artist faces” you describe in your book was such a joy to read! I am so familiar with that feeling, and yet seeing it put into words and a concept was totally new for me and it resonated deeply… Could you tell our readers a bit more about the concept?
BP: Either Michelle Tea or Ali Liebegott coined ‘spooky writer face’ the first year we ran the RADAR Lab, a queer writers retreat in Akumal, Mexico. We shared small quarters so we had required quiet work hours 9-noon everyday. Right away we noticed the zombie zone the writers would to around in after writing hours, ambling into the kitchen, confusedly trying to make lunch or boil water. They were still in the other world they were creating but motioning around in this world.
That ‘zone’ one gets in when one is deep in a project and the strange twilight they pass through as they ‘come to’–that is spooky artist face.
DDZ: I’ve definitely caught myself in the mirror in such a state, and spooked many family members passing by my room growing up! There’s definitely some deep sea subconscious or other-worldly diving happening before that state…
Did you ever find yourself with that spooky writer face during the time you were writing “Your Art Will Save Your Life?”
BP: I did. And that made me relate to my clients. I definitely had moments when I felt absorbed in writing but that was infrequent. Mostly I felt like ‘how the fuck am I gonna get to my 20k words?’
DDZ: Ahah love it! That state of absorption or focus reminds me of what some of my yoga students clients experience after meditation . That state of such openness and vulnerability. In one of your later chapters you even describe encouraging sharing with other artists during that state. What do you think makes that the most effective?
BP: I think some retraining of 🧠 synapses can happen during that murky transition phase between the art making zone and your regular old worried, anxious mind. As an artist comes out of the depths of their project and the critical brain starts up again, that’s a great time to have another artist
reflect one back at oneself. Before the asshole critical self starts in with ‘well, that was a waste’ or ‘who knows if what I’m making is any good’ etc.
DDZ: Ah yes! I bet it really helps to building up a practice of trusting within and out of that space. I love that although you frequently make a distinction between yourself and your clients, anyone can experience that state of focus when writing or engrossing in a deeply engaging activity.
What was the overall experience of writing the book like? Did you write a whole first draft or did you make a go of it in chunks day by day?
BP: I get very absorbed in grant writing and come back from it like ‘where, when, and who am I?’
I started the book back in 2015 or early 2016 because I had no room for more clients and I thought I should write down everything that I do with artists in book form to be able to support more artists beyond my individual consulting practice. Then the election happened and I quickly wrote up a pamphlet for artists called Making Art During Fascism to help my clients and other artists flipping out over trump. Michelle Tea then said she wanted to edit a series of short texts for Feminist Press along the lines of ‘survival guides’ on different topics and asked if I wanted to write one and I was like FUCK YEAH, so I put together the text I’d written, expanded on my pamphlet, and added more self help style writing. It was a short turnaround and my next book will be longer and go in depth into some of the concepts I introduce in this book.
I’m a Capricorn and very orderly- my brain just thinks in sequence and structure so I pretty much wrote it in order and then my editor Alyea Canada at Feminist Press moves parts around to make a compelling structure.
I originally had an essay about my mother in the book but I took it out at the last moment and swapped it for a list of things art school graduates should do.
DDZ: I remember “Making Art During Fascism” workshops popping up on the Women’s Center For Creative Work calendar shortly after the election, and you write about the importance of making art and gathering in your book. When did you host the first workshop?
BP: I hosted the first MADF workshop at Pieter Performance Space in Lincoln Heights in early December 2016.
DDZ: Yess—so literally right after the election. I remember how potent it was to see that title and pamphlet.
In your book you take us through the process of first acknowledging your feelings and reactions to the political climate, and then being of service. Considering you hosted the workshop for so long, how do you feel it impacted you to be of service?
BP: Definitely. I asked myself, ‘what do I know how to do?’ I know how to fundraise, I have counseling training, facilitation training, and I can create conditions through which people can feel better, feel connected, and feel motivated to take action
So I used my skills to do just that. I thought of the weekly drop-in group as a kind of social emergency response center. People could come who felt lost, wanted to broaden their community, and who needed to break isolation
(I only hosted it free/weekly for 3 months! Then I started doing it as a workshop that is frequently offered free by arts orgs but they pay me for my time.)
I continue to do pro bono work for a specific group of artists. That’s where my service and volunteer hours go now.
DDZ: In hindsight, did you notice any themes or shifts emerging within the various groups over that period of time?
BP: Over time artists’ questions shifted to themes of continuing activism in a sustainable way, how to resist normalizing the political climate, burnout, depression, anxiety, the works.
DDZ: It’s so interesting how in our culture —and during this time—artists often need the supportive reminder that their role is to keep making. I know a lot of artists who felt “selfish” making art when so much turmoil was going on, and you touch on this in your book too.
The guides in your book seem like a radical concept to me as a younger artist and I’m glad your book is normalizing and validating the “making” and fighting against normalizing the political climate!
BP: We in the U.S. live in such an art negative culture. Artists easily internalize beliefs that art is a hobby, it’s not a realistic/worthy career, they aren’t supposed to get paid or should never believe they can be paid, ‘what is your real career gonna be?’, etc. Our federal government gives chump change to the arts and humanities in its budget
Plus so much of our culture of labor is based on beliefs that you aren’t supposed to love work. I know I learned that. And yet I wired to be a person who needs meaningful work along with making money. And artists are wired that they must make art to be alive and to have a full, satisfying life.
If we love something, why does that make it unimportant? That’s a useful question I think.
Since art has such a profound effect on other people, on systems, on policy, on quality of life, how can it be selfish of an artist to make it?
DDZ: Absolutely! In your book you also dive into how most artists you know have to reckon with not having “enough” time, inspiration, resources because of our culture and conditioning. It’s such a trip bc it’s often quite true in the real world like you mentioned, so a lot of it is beating those thoughts by having a practice and support.
Your book has very helpful breakdowns of the trifecta of an artists needs and how to combat some of this. A lot of art making it turns out, is an abject refusal of this conditioning. I’m curious, will your second book go deeper into these practices, or what else will you be discussing?
BP: My second book will go DEEP SELF HELP
It’ll be directed at those special people who need to be creatively activated to function, which is not everyone contrary to what artists believe. It’s not a universal experience – this need to be creatively engaged as a means of processing, expressing, communicating and understanding, and I am committed to creating accessible tools that motivate, validate, challenge, and support these special people.
DDZ: HELL YES
Lord knows we need it! Stoked.
It’s been rainy lately in la, so here’s a fun photo challenge: send me a selfie of your book, or any photo of your book you feel inspired to take! Here’s mine 🖤
DDZ: Yesss I was hoping it’d be the pups!
Could you tell me more about this distinction between the special type of creative people and others? This is news to me (lol artist over here) because I tend to think of it as universal too!
Is this also why you often make a distinction in your book between yourself and your artist clients? It’s interesting to me, because you’re creating too! Creating your books.
BP: It my view, artists are people who need to be creatively engaged in order to be well. It’s actually crucial to their wellbeing. This is different from the rest of us who may benefit from creative engagement but do not need it to understand and communicate. There are billions of people who are not artists!
DDZ: If there was 1 thing you’d wish to transform about the art world, what would it be?
BP: PAY EQUITY AND TRANSPARENCY
DDZ: Yessss. Thank you! Final question, that we ask all our interviewees: what inspires and astonishes you?
BP: 1. That meme about everything in this RadioShack ad is now done by one smart phone
2. Unsurprisingly – art and artists but it’d be weird to not repeat that here.
3. The nature all over Los Angeles county
4. This MoviePass situation
5. Queer creative communities
6. young feminists
7. meditation
8. The Life Changing Magic of WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION
9. Old feminists
DDZ: Ahaha hell yes! Intergenerational as fuck
BP:Thanks so much for interviewing me!
DDZ: It was my pleasure. See you at the reading tonight!
*
Your Art Will Save Your Life is now out by Feminist Press. Order here!
Tuesday, April 10th, 2018
QUOTED: "This slim self-help book offers modest and straightforward suggestions for surviving and thriving in creative endeavors."
Your Art Will Save Your Life
Publishers Weekly. 265.7 (Feb. 12, 2018): p72.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Your Art Will Save Your Life
Beth Pickens. Feminist, $14.95 trade paper
(136p) ISBN 978-1-936932-29-0
Career consultant Pickens's first book expands on her pamphlet "Making Art During Fascism" and implores artists and creative professionals who are at a crossroads in their career to continue practicing their skills while also learning to take control of their lives. The author, whose clients are primarily artists, describes the book as a "love letter to artists," intended to be used "as a framework for maintaining [an artistic] practice regardless of the political climate." She emphasizes that art-making serves as an important emotional outlet that helps artists navigate their own lives, but also notes the ways art can motivate others, as seen in the extraordinary works of art that came out of the AIDS crisis and helped fuel a larger movement. Pickens is an enthusiastic advocate for artists to not give up and to follow their dreams. The most useful advice in the book is for emerging artists, adamant about pursuing their art; for example, a section on the three basic needs of artists smartly emphasizes the importance of finding a community of other working artists and engaging with a variety of art in maintaining one's own artistic practice. This slim self-help book offers modest and straightforward suggestions for surviving and thriving in creative endeavors. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Your Art Will Save Your Life." Publishers Weekly, 12 Feb. 2018, p. 72. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528615542/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=59d5c044. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528615542
QUOTED: "Though the book is very short, it contains lots of valuable advice and probably wouldn’t be as effective if Pickens had written more on the topic (since writers and artists tend to be procrastinators, it's better to avoid making the process seem too complicated). That said, I would have enjoyed more advice specifically geared toward writers, considering the author’s decision to annotate the word 'artist' to mention her definition includes writers on the book’s first page."
"This book would be the most effective if read when an artist’s just getting started, but it will surely work at any level."
"Your Art Will Save Your Life" Tells Artists How To Survive Any Political Shitstorm: BUST Review
BY CRYSTAL ERICKSON IN BOOKS
yourart 8668d
The prolific painter Edgar Degas once said, “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” Certainly, to be an artist is to struggle — but there are ways to cultivate that struggle into great art, and live a satisfying, fulfilling life as an artist. LA-based art consultant Beth Pickens wrote Your Art Will Save Your Life (Feminist Press) to reach artists she cannot help on a one-on-one basis. Trump’s takeover of the White House was the final nudge Pickens needed to write this how-to-survive-in-a-bullshit-world book for artists, in an attempt to encourage artists to keep making their art. The book’s comprised of two parts; part one is a brief section about Pickens’ background, and part two contains exercises and practical advice for artists and writers alike.
Pickens’ first experience with the art scene came when a neighbor brought her to the opening of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, when she was a teenager. Because she came from humble beginnings in pre-internet times, the art opening naturally opened her mind to a world she couldn’t possibly imagine on her own. It gave Pickens an entry point to a world that offered her so much more — a world galaxies beyond the humble small-town existence she’d been limited to before. This pivotal moment relocated Pickens into the art world, which became her life and eventually her mission — to help artists be artists — as she knew firsthand how life-changing art is. She writes:
It’s been more than twenty years since that night at the Andy Warhol Museum, and since then I have consistently, heavily relied on artists to make me want to be in the world at its worst and to embody a deeper experience of life at its best.
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Part two of the book kicks off with a self-inventory, which asks way more questions than you’d ever be asked at a therapist’s or college advisor’s office. Questions cover everything from family, money, careers, and the creative process, such as, “What have you created most recently, and what are you working on right now?” and, “What is your relationship to money now? How do you earn it? How much debt do you have?” I performed the self-inventory myself and wrote all the questions and answers down, and even while just writing the questions down, the answers flowed out of my head and made immediate sense of my thought process and many thoughts and decisions I’ve made that I’ve wondered about forever. This self-inventory is no joke — it is a much-needed reality check for anyone feeling stuck and unsure why they keep banging their head against wall, making the same dumb mistakes over and over out of a habit they cannot seem to shake.
Your Art Will Save Your Life is the artist's guidebook to create, thrive, and survive amid any political shitstorm.
In the next chapter, Pickens states the artist’s three basic needs as “an ongoing art practice, a community of working artists, and lots of varied art consumption.” These three must-haves are the key to a satisfying life, and will keep artists out of despair. By tending to these needs, an artist will avoid many common problems in the field. Pickens also discusses how self-care is essential to an artist’s well-being, as it's impossible to function without taking care of oneself. Of course, this is true for anyone no matter their profession — but holds especially true for artists, whose craft depends on a certain level of well-being and inspiration to create (we can’t all be tortured geniuses, nor do we want to be). I can attest to all of these strategies for satisfying an artist’s basic needs, as I partake in them myself and truly feel they’re the only way to stay creative and sane in this world.
With the shocking news that comes our way every single day thanks to the Trump regime, artists are finding it more difficult than ever to create art. Some artists feel that it’s a selfish thing to do in times like these, which is a problem that everyone who gives a shit about the world can probably relate to. But Pickens urges artists to keep creating art, insisting that their art matters — and it’s needed more now than ever — as she discusses in sections like “FAQs During Oppressive Political Climates.” She writes:
When our culture becomes oppressive and moves toward upholding the white supremacist capitalist militarist patriarchy, we need creative, public forms of dissent to inspire, counter fatigue, rally, instigate, and inform.
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In the same chapter, Pickens suggests treating activism like a hobby, and engaging in it with an activist buddy, which is basically her much cooler version of the gym buddy system. I'd rather get active this way, and it’s a great way to do something about the nonsense while connecting with friends and other like minds IRL. It’s a much better — and actually productive — way to spend your time than responding to comments from racist Nazi trollbots.
Though the book is very short, it contains lots of valuable advice and probably wouldn’t be as effective if Pickens had written more on the topic (since writers and artists tend to be procrastinators, it's better to avoid making the process seem too complicated). That said, I would have enjoyed more advice specifically geared toward writers, considering the author’s decision to annotate the word “artist” to mention her definition includes writers on the book’s first page. I’d love to see a writer-specific companion piece companion piece to this book. That said, it’s easy enough to read between the lines and apply Pickens’ advice to writing. This book would be the most effective if read when an artist’s just getting started, but it will surely work at any level. I really wish I had a guide like this when I was just getting started — back when the president-turn-painter Bush was running the oppressive regime at hand — so I didn’t have to learn by trial and error. This advice will always be in style, since, as Pickens points out, assholes will always rule the world. Fortunately, Your Art Will Save Your Life is the artist's guidebook to create, thrive, and survive amid any political shitstorm.