Stay ConnectedArtists! Need some support? Strategies for navigating your life and your work? Accountability and deadlines? We all do! Here is a podcast for you.
Beth Pickens is an arts consultant in Los Angeles, California. She’s the author of two self-help books for artists, and for over 12 years has helped clients navigate the complexities of being an artist in the modern world.
Copyright: © 2020 Mind Your Practice
Get more advice on IG: @bethpickensconsulting
Join the Mind Your Practice Homework Club: www.mindyourpractice.com
Homework Club is for every creative person who wants deadlines and accountability! I mean, who doesn’t want that? Each month you’ll get: homework handouts, bonus audio content, access to a private members-only IG account, and a webinar led by author and arts consultant Beth Pickens. Just $12/month through 2020.
THIS EPISODE'S HOMEWORK:
This episode’s homework is about living the principle that your art matters.
In the next week, I want you to write a letter to your creative practice as a whole, all of the work you’ve ever made and all the work you will make. I want you, in the letter, to express your gratitude for what your practice has done for your life and the way it’s helped you. You can make a list. You can send a gushing email. You can make a drawing. You can write a proper Victorian love letter with a fountain pen.
Next, I want you to clear out one more hour than you would usually commit to art making. Give yourself one more hour. If you’ve been giving yourself zero hours in recent weeks, then you can use this as an opportunity to go from zero to 1.
Finally, I want you to make a list of at least 20 artists who have made work that has been deeply meaningful to you. Any discipline, living and dead, anywhere across place and time. Celebrities, anonymous artists, someone you know and love. List all their names. Pick one of these and write them a love letter for their art. Tell them all about what you loved and why and what their work has meant to you. If you can and the person is living, send the letter to them.
And, please, tell me how it goes.
Mind Your Practice is produced by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. You can find out more about her practice at carolynpennypackerriggs.com
Our show icon is made by Jess Cuevas.
Get more advice on IG: @bethpickensconsulting
Join the Mind Your Practice Homework Club: www.mindyourpractice.com
Homework Club is for every creative person who wants deadlines and accountability! I mean, who doesn’t want that? Each month you’ll get: homework handouts, bonus audio content, access to a private members-only IG account, and a webinar led by author and arts consultant Beth Pickens. Just $12/month through 2020.
THIS EPISODE'S HOMEWORK:
Ok, let’s talk about your homework. This episode’s homework sounds paradoxical but conflicting ideas can coexist at the same time.
First, I want you to think about your 40% capacity. What could you do in a day or a week in 2019? What does that look like if it’s reduced down to 40% right now - not forever, just right now? What can you let go of? What can become imperfect? Where can you have some help? What can be tabled until later?
Next, I want you to write a list of what you intuitively know helps you rest and recover and what you intuitively know is numbing out. Make two distinct lists.
Ok, now I want you to commit, in the next week, to a 24 hour period of no screens. If that’s not possible for some logistical reason, how long can you go? Try it.
Finally, I want you to build some creative practice space into your week, every week for the next month. Put it into your calendar, protect it in the shape of your week. Jealously guard it.
Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear from you.
Mind Your Practice is produced by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. You can find out more about her practice at carolynpennypackerriggs.com
Get more advice on IG: @bethpickensconsulting
Join the Mind Your Practice Homework Club: www.mindyourpractice.com
Homework Club is for every creative person who wants deadlines and accountability! I mean, who doesn’t want that? Each month you’ll get: homework handouts, bonus audio content, access to a private members-only IG account, and a webinar led by author and arts consultant Beth Pickens. Just $12/month through 2020.
THIS EPISODE'S HOMEWORK:
Ok, let’s talk about your homework. First, think about yourself in terms of showing yourself and sharing your work. Is this something you avoid? Do you want to do it differently, on new terms? Is there work you want to show more of? Is there anything you want to share less of?
Next, consider some recent work, any discipline, in which you connected to vulnerability and the willingness of the artist to share themselves. I just read the new novel Life Events by Karolina Waclawiak, which I loved, and vulnerability came up for me again and again in this story of death and disconnection. How does another artist’s vulnerability connect inside of you?
Then, imagine yourself as a conduit for connection through your work. What in your practice makes you feel vulnerable? Which projects? Sharing it where and how? Why do you decide to share or not share? Have this conversation and answer these questions with another artist that you trust.
Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear from you.
Mind Your Practice is produced by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. You can find out more about her practice at carolynpennypackerriggs.com
Get more advice on IG: @bethpickensconsulting
Join the Mind Your Practice Homework Club: www.mindyourpractice.com
Homework Club is for every creative person who wants deadlines and accountability! I mean, who doesn’t want that? Each month you’ll get: homework handouts, bonus audio content, access to a private members-only IG account, and a webinar led by author and arts consultant Beth Pickens. Just $12/month through 2020.
THIS EPISODE'S HOMEWORK:
This episode’s homework is about living the principle that your art matters.
In the next week, I want you to write a letter to your creative practice as a whole, all of the work you’ve ever made and all the work you will make. I want you, in the letter, to express your gratitude for what your practice has done for your life and the way it’s helped you. You can make a list. You can send a gushing email. You can make a drawing. You can write a proper Victorian love letter with a fountain pen.
Next, I want you to clear out one more hour than you would usually commit to art making. Give yourself one more hour. If you’ve been giving yourself zero hours in recent weeks, then you can use this as an opportunity to go from zero to 1.
Finally, I want you to make a list of at least 20 artists who have made work that has been deeply meaningful to you. Any discipline, living and dead, anywhere across place and time. Celebrities, anonymous artists, someone you know and love. List all their names. Pick one of these and write them a love letter for their art. Tell them all about what you loved and why and what their work has meant to you. If you can and the person is living, send the letter to them.
And, please, tell me how it goes.
Mind Your Practice is produced by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. You can find out more about her practice at carolynpennypackerriggs.com
Our show icon is made by Jess Cuevas.
Get more advice on IG: @bethpickensconsulting
Join the Mind Your Practice Homework Club: www.mindyourpractice.com
Homework Club is for every creative person who wants deadlines and accountability! I mean, who doesn’t want that? Each month you’ll get: homework handouts, bonus audio content, access to a private members-only IG account, and a webinar led by author and arts consultant Beth Pickens. Just $12/month through 2020.
THIS EPISODE'S HOMEWORK:
Ok, let’s talk about your homework. I want you to think about these three basic needs for artists in your own life. How is your practice? How about your creative community? How full are your coffers? Where can you identify that a little tending is needed and how can you invite in what you need? If you think one or more of these needs are found wanting, make a plan for the next week. What is one simple action you can take? How much time can you reasonably commit to tending to these three basic needs?
Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear from you.
Mind Your Practice is produced by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. You can find out more about her practice at carolynpennypackerriggs.com
Mind Your Practice is a podcast for artists navigating the complexities of the modern world, hosted by professional arts consultant Beth Pickens. This season we'll tackle the question: Does my art even matter? We'll discuss strategies for focus and productivity, how to ask for help, why and how to show up and share your art, and so much more.
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