Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles

There are innumerable (almost) books out there for artists, many of which repeat each other. I own about half of them and actually was pleasantly surprised by this book. Creative block is a huge problem for most artists at least at some point, and the advice given in many of these books boils down to: find your muse, set a working schedule, create your niche. These suggestions do have their place, but often the ability to move ahead with one's art has more of the feel of an existential crisis that resists simple solutions. So, imagine my surprise when I opened Ms. Pickens' book and found a treasure chest of valuable wisdom for people like me. The chapters present actually useful considerations on issues like "time" and "work", yes, but also on less obvious challenges such as grief and other people. The author is a practicing therapist who has been through the wars with artists who are locked in the tortuous and torturous pathways-cum-dead-ends that live and multiple in their minds. They (we) can play endless dialogue games about what keeps them from picking up the paint brush or sitting down at the computer or continuing to map out that dance routine. We know the problem and "solutions" but between Point A and Point B we somehow slide off the edge of the earth and land on shame, fear, or other catastrophic continents. (Do any of the metaphors in this review help?) Ms. Pickens has new insights into all of this, is empathetic, and - wait for it - creative. I heartily recommend this book as a prescription for what ails the creatives described above.

There really isn't anything new or genuinely helpful in this book and I found the repetitive attempts to push her political ideology to be too much and incredibly unhelpful.As but one example, she claims that 'punk damage'--meaning, if you came of age in a punk scene you have suffered monetary damage--is holding artists back because it prevents them for charging enough for their art, or even wanting to make money. She then writes, “Not all artists come from punk culture, which can read as a white person’s context though people of color have always been part of and intrinsically linked to punk.” Not even sure where to start with that statement.Anyway, if you are looking for help to be a more productive artist, this is not it. Much better books out there.

A very helpful book full of actionable advice for artists. Beth Pickens really understands artists and the support they need (emotional, financial, social, spiritual). Highly recommend this book!

This book was on a pop up. The title intrigued me so I downloaded it from the library. Although there was some interesting information, it was peppered with the author's anti-white social justice warrior views. I thought I was going to read a book that would encourage me as an artist. However, the hateful political views that were peppered throughout this publication distracted from what could have been a good and helpful read. If you are white; especially white male; especially white, male, and straight; especially white, male, straight, and conservative...be warned. This book does not have very nice things to say about you.

This is a practical and compassionate guide for artists who are learning to navigate the particular challenges of an artist's life. It might appeal to new artists or those who've reached a stumbling block.For established artists, it might be a little annoying that the author seems to be giving us "permission" to be artists, as if we require external affirmation. So, whether you find this book useful might depend on where you are in your career.Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I loved Make Your Art No Matter What. My copy is full of sticky notes and I know I'll go back and reference it regularly.Beth Pickens is so generous in her advice and encouragement in this book! There are a ton of helpful exercises and the chapters are all insightful.Definitely recommend this book for all the artists in your life!

I just could not get through it. I skipped around chapter trying to find something but I couldn’t relate to anything she said. She seem to lump all artist into this box and as a woman and artist, it was not a box I wanted to be in.

Or even if you don't feel like an "artist" artist, but want to.

Beth Pickens is now my Art Therapist. We've never met but she's helped me tremendously with understanding my nature as an artist.My key takeaway is — my troubles with art may be personal, but all of us struggle.

This is a pretty simple book going through a few different kinds of obstacles you might face as an artist—i.e. money, time, stress etc. and tips on how to deal with them. I think if you've done any kind of therapy even for a short period of time then you've probably come across most of the things Pickens suggests. There was really nothing I hadn't heard of before, and while not new, at least Pickens' suggestions are helpful and healthy. It is a beautifully put-together book and I'll definitely be passing it on to other artists in my life.

I can't stand this book. The title is great, which is why I bought it, but very misleading. Leads with a political agenda and opinions that are incredibly annoying and peppered throughout the book. I couldn't get past it and had to stop listening. She needs to write a different book about her opinions if those are her passions which they clearly are.

Perfect chain for LV conversion kit. It's a bit heavy but beautiful.

I purchased this chain for my friends bag and the clasp broke after a few days of using it.

The gold matches with my lv mini pochette. It’s a hint lighter but it looks good! The chain has some weight and seems like good quality.

Ring buckle was tarnish and there are some signs of usage.

The long chain is heavy, thick and the shade of gold is really nice.The pearl chain is cute, lightweight and feminine.

I bought this to use as a cross body chain for my cell phone and it works perfectly. The chain is beautiful and feels sturdy and solid. I bought the option with the pearls and it’s so pretty it adds a nice touch to the whole thing. Love it.

I have never felt so seen while reading a book. This book has shed so much insight on the reasons behind why I do what I do, and given me so many resources to lean on. I first bought the Kindle version which is an amazing deal but it's so good I'm buying the paperback also to come back to again and again. If you're mentally or emotionally struggling as an artist, which we all do eventually, you need this book. I feel renewed in my creative practice. Thank you Beth Pickens whoever you are!

There are innumerable (almost) books out there for artists, many of which repeat each other. I own about half of them and actually was pleasantly surprised by this book. Creative block is a huge problem for most artists at least at some point, and the advice given in many of these books boils down to: find your muse, set a working schedule, create your niche. These suggestions do have their place, but often the ability to move ahead with one's art has more of the feel of an existential crisis that resists simple solutions. So, imagine my surprise when I opened Ms. Pickens' book and found a treasure chest of valuable wisdom for people like me. The chapters present actually useful considerations on issues like "time" and "work", yes, but also on less obvious challenges such as grief and other people. The author is a practicing therapist who has been through the wars with artists who are locked in the tortuous and torturous pathways-cum-dead-ends that live and multiple in their minds. They (we) can play endless dialogue games about what keeps them from picking up the paint brush or sitting down at the computer or continuing to map out that dance routine. We know the problem and "solutions" but between Point A and Point B we somehow slide off the edge of the earth and land on shame, fear, or other catastrophic continents. (Do any of the metaphors in this review help?) Ms. Pickens has new insights into all of this, is empathetic, and - wait for it - creative. I heartily recommend this book as a prescription for what ails the creatives described above.

So this was a serious release? As in, nobody's ribbing us? You can honestly not find a worse sounding version of this album, and I don't even think it ever sounded that great in its most pristine, unmarred state. If you could get your hands on the master tapes from this album and purposely try to come up with the worst mix imaginable, you'd still fall short of the precedent set here. Had I known Chicago/Rhino was actually paying somebody to do this I would have gladly offered my completely amateur services at no cost. No, I would have offered the services of literally any random person who had never done this before in their life. Actually forget that. I would sit an infant in front of a Pro Tools station and still walk away with a finished product that wasn't half bad. Unlike this product, which seems to be neither finished nor half anything. It's full trash.So who's first on the list of blame? A guy by the name of Tim Jessup. A guy who has already addressed the "haters" on his Facebook page. Well I'm here today to gladly proclaim myself as a Tim Jessup hater. For life. I hate everything he's offered up in his defense. I hate everything he's done to this music. I hate that he's allegedly made a career out of this. There is no shame in hating this remix or the man responsible. Tim Jessup has solidified himself on history's list of men truly deserving of hate.But this couldn't have been the work of just one man, could it? He had to have answered to somebody. Somebody had to have heard these tracks and said, "Yes. This is satisfactory. Release this to the marks." Now I'm not exactly sure who this might be but I don't exactly care either. I have read that the entity that is Chicago now owns the rights to most, if not all, of their recordings and back catalog. And that Lee Loughnane was the founding member delegated to putting this remix together or finding an engineer for it or both so either way I now hate Lee Loughnane. I ask that everyone who reads this review joins me in hating Lee and his new buddy Tim.How did they come to be buddies? Well apparently when a live release was being mixed (Live at the Isle of Wight) Lee was asked to fly to Los Angeles to oversee the process, but he instead asked their management to find someone who was local to him so that he didn't have to leave home. And so they found Tim. Good credentials. Tim of course went on to butcher that live release, utilizing inventively stupid techniques like having to recreate the stage ambiance of a live recording with reverb/delay (because he muted every instrument whenever it was not playing, intentionally removing that original ambiance), and running a poorly recorded and already amped to death guitar signal through multiple other amps in order to make Terry Kath's LES PAUL sound like a TELECASTER that he wouldn't play until LATER in his career. And while the end result only came out in 2018, I suspect Tim's decisions will continue to be incomprehensible for years to come.But back to CTA. Part of Tim's damage control was that the entire point of the remix was to celebrate the album's 50th anniversary by making it sound like it was recorded weeks ago. Looks like we can't get away from incomprehensible decisions for more than a few sentences. So let's break that one down. This guy thought the best way to commemorate the amount of time since this music was first recorded was to deliberately undermine it. Now let's pretend that in some alternate universe that actually made sense. Even if we could accept that, it would still leave us with a pretty important question: has Tim actually listened to any modern recorded music?All jokes aside, this remix makes one wonder if Tim unknowingly suffers from hearing loss. Actually no, the jokes remain. If Tim has a family or friends or anybody who is even remotely invested in his continued existence on this planet, they should really try to convince him to see some kind of specialist or doctor. The fact that he claimed the members of Chicago who listened to his work were moved to tears also tells me that he might have some issues with interpreting human emotions. I cried when I listened to this too, Tim, but it wasn't because I enjoyed it.More gems from his list of excuses were that there was an error in the production stage (there wasn't) and that replacement discs would be coming shortly (they won't be). According to Tim, his masters are fine. Sound great. The problems occurred when the discs were pressed. So somewhere along the physical production process the vocals were badly autotuned. The original stereo field was forcibly narrowed. Background vocals were gain-boosted until the tape hiss had to be clumsily filtered out, distorting every word into a wash of sibilant. Guitar riffs and horn sections were awkwardly dropped in and out in ways that never existed before. Yes these were all defects that popped up when the discs were being manufactured and were not completely the fault of one guy not comparing his work to any of the better versions of this album already available (There are many. Literally all of them are better).But don't worry! According to Tim, the new digital masters should be back from Gateway Mastering next week (except that was three weeks ago as of 10/27 but who's counting), including a high definition MQA version, because we're all dying to hear Tim's work at an even higher level of fidelity. MQA, in case you're wondering, is more streaming, snake oil nonsense so you just know Tim ate that sales pitch up. We can also look forward to the Mastered for iTunes version, which is surprisingly not meaningless jargon (never mind the fact that Apple announced they were killing iTunes long before this debacle), but the main takeaway here is that this remix will sound the same no matter what version you listen to. The mastering or manufacturing process is not and never was the problem. The problems were, and always will be, contained to the mixing stage. Just like they are, and always will be, easily traced back to one man.So join me in embracing the roles of Tim Jessup's personal "haters." Personally I look forward to laughing at the thought of this moron's botched handling of this remix anytime I hear Beginnings or Questions in the future. I look forward to seeing the rating of this remix continue to drop. I look forward to hearing Chicago's third or fourth Christmas album featuring Tim vomiting all over the knobs and faders. It will be guaranteed garbage. I'm even morbidly curious about the next anniversary they hand to Tim to ruin.But I won't pay for it. Just like I won't pay for another anniversary remix or even bother returning this disc for the replacement that is never coming. I wouldn't give Rhino or Loughnane another penny if this is what they think paying customers want to hear, but I will give them plenty of one star reviews. And you should too.ADDENDUMOkay so I'm back. I went to check if my review had gotten any feedback, and seeing the helpful votes and comments reignited the garbage fire that is this product. I realized I spent all that time focusing just on the music, and said nothing about the packaging or even the intent behind this release. So let me see how much vitriol I can muster up for them.Have you ever stood in the checkout line at the grocery store and seen a rack of discount CDs and DVDs set up nearby? That's what this CD is packaged like. A budget title just thrown out the door. I feel like since a lot of companies are trying to curb their plastic use, I can't really knock them for trying to save a few pennies by following the trend but on the other hand I can pretty much knock them for anything, so good job throwing this cheap disc into cheap digipaks, Rhino. A normal jewel case would have at least offered it some protection from me stomping on it.What's inside the cardboard? Nothing. There's no notes or booklet or lyrics or anything. They really couldn't find a single person to give a quote about this album, any memories of when it was recorded, what the music meant to them and the era it came from? I guess I could understand if Rhino was too embarrassed to ask Peter Cetera to pick up the phone for five minutes, but there isn't even any indication of what 50th Anniversary Remix actually means. They expected us to just buy it and jump in blind. And boy did we ever.We're entering a period where more and more "classic" albums are getting anniversary releases. Some are good, some are disappointing, and some are Chicago. This anniversary release is now legendary for it's inept unnecessity (I just learned this was an actual word). If you want to see bands that do these commemorations right check out King Crimson and Jethro Tull, who manage to expand single albums into four to five disc collections. Not just alternate mixes or takes, you'll sometimes get an entire alternate album. Peter Gabriel and John Lennon similarly offer more content that any one person would normally consume. Even Phil Collins at least went onto youtube and pulled "rare" live tracks to slap onto a bonus disc for each title (not joking here either). Chicago did none of that. Possibly didn't even toss the idea around once you consider the sad state of what they actually put out.So let's toss some ideas around ourselves. Off the top of my head here's a few better examples of what they could've done to celebrate CTA's 50th:1. Strip out a few layers.I don't think this was a very overdub-heavy album, but it might have been interesting to hear some of these songs without the iconic horn sections. Give us a drum and bass mix of something. Do anything to give us a glimpse behind the curtain, or to show us what these songs sounded like in their embryonic state.2. Include a live performance from the era.Dial back the previous "worst" remaster (if only we knew) so that it's a step above the original issues but not as loud as the 2002 series. Then put together some archival footage or live recordings from around the same period. There's been that one bootlegged set from Toronto that the band unwittingly signed away the rights to. The sheer amount of times it's been redistributed since then tells me that Chicago either can't or doesn't care to stop it anymore. So forget that one. There's a way higher quality soundboard recording from a month earlier at the Fillmore West. There's a professionally filmed performance from Amsterdam a few months later. There's the Texas International Pop Festival. And we got... none of them.3. Rerecord the album with the current lineup.Potential sacrilege to some, but if it were presented as not an attempt to completely emulate the original players but as a homage to them, it could have at least breathed some new air into the music itself. It could have been interesting. It couldn't have done more of a disservice to the album than what we got anyway.Are all of these examples ones that would have taken some actual thought and effort? Yes. Are they all still niche ideas that might not have brought in a lot of revenue? Yes. Are they all better than what they actually put out? YES. Yet what do I know? Obviously there's someone in charge somewhere who knows better than I do. Somebody approved this in its current state, but why? Obviously Chicago is still a touring band, still trying to make as much money as they can, while they can. In that sense it's not unreasonable to see why they would mine their back catalog as much as possible so that it can passively generate some revenue while they're out actively chasing it. So I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to buying any and all future (or past) Chicago products second hand. In the future, I'd love to say not another cent from me when into their pockets. For what they've given us here, it's the least I can do.

Chicago Transit Authority 50th Anniversary Remix: A ReviewOne of the things I love about remixes is that they give you a chance to hear an album that you’ve been listening to for years in a new way. Some of my purist friends say things like “they got it right the first time,” or “I like it just the way it is,” and they’re not wrong. But I welcome remixes, as well as alternate takes and mixes from the vaults. In some ways, it’s like hearing that album for the first time, especially if you’ve been listening to it for almost fifty years, like in the case of this one. But a remix isn’t necessarily better or worse. Just DIFFERENT.I recently gave Chicago Transit Authority’s 50th Anniversary Remix a listen, and I was really surprised by it. I’ve been listening to this album since the early 70s, when I bought it on 8-Track, then on vinyl in the early 80s, then on CD in the 90s. I liked what Steven Wilson did with Chicago’s second album (a.k.a. “Chicago II”) remix, but this one was done by Tim Jessup, supervised by Chicago’s horn player Lee Loughnane, and is quite a different kind of remix than Wilson’s.So first, I’m going to talk about aspects of the remix that are consistently present on every track. Then, I’ll go over each song on the album, track-by-track.Album-wide Aspects:1. Flat-as-a-pancake EQ.The first thing I noticed right off the bat was the album’s ultra-flat EQ. My first instinct was to reach for my amp’s tone controls to “fix” it, but I decided to resist the temptation and just run with it. After the first couple of songs, I didn’t even notice it any more. Flat EQ seems to be a trend with remixes lately, leaving it to the listener to tailor the EQ to his own personal preferences. Besides just following a trend, there may be another reason Jessup decided to go with the flat EQ on this particular album. One thing I’ve always noticed about the album’s last song, Liberation, is that its EQ sounded flat compared to all of the other songs. Over the years, I’d sometimes adjust my amp’s EQ just before the song started, to compensate for it, so that it sounded like all of the other songs. I’ll talk more about this later, when I review that particular track.2. The horns have been moved to the center.On the original mix, the horns were usually panned far to one side. This is the only Chicago album where that was done, and the move to the center was something I had anticipated.3. The horns have less (or no) reverb.On the original mix, heavy reverb was added to the horns. And like the far right/left panning, this was the only Chicago album that this appeared on. On later albums (at least through Chicago VI,) the horns were left mostly “dry.”4. Terry Kath’s guitar work has been moved more forward.This isn’t something I was necessarily anticipating, as much as I was hoping for and, thankfully, Jessup has moved Terry’s amazing guitar playing more “up front” in the mix. I’ll talk about this in more detail on some of the individual tracks.5. Overall distortion.This is something I was a little disappointed in and assumed that it was due to the condition of the tapes, or over-compression. There’s no apparent clipping, but on the “busy” parts of the songs, where every member of the band is playing and/or singing something, the whole thing sounds a bit distorted and muddled. However, Robert Lamm did comment on the condition of the tapes in a recent interview, saying “that first album was recorded on only 8 tracks, which makes this new [remix] project that I just heard all the more interesting, because that original recording has held up all these years.” So, who knows?Now, on to the individual tracks. Before finishing this review, I listened to the remix all the way through several times. Then I listened to the original mix version of each song, followed by the remix of each song, just to make sure that I wasn’t oblivious to characteristics of the original mix that were there the whole time and I just never noticed them before.1. IntroductionThe horn solos sound clearer and Terry’s vocals are EQ’d with more treble and is slightly distorted.2. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?The piano intro sounds clearer than the original.3. BeginningsTerry’s rhythm guitar part sounds more “ringy.”4. Questions 67 & 68The bass is heavier and the horns sound clearer, so you can hear more nuances in how they’re playing. Also, Peter Cetera’s vocals sound compressed and trebly.5. ListenTerry’s rhythm guitar part is clearer.6. Poem 58The bass is heavier and Robert’s lead vocals are compressed, trebly and slightly distorted. And there are some of Robert’s vocal parts left in that were edited out of the original mix, mostly a few grunts and “whoah”s in between verses. (This was done on the 5.1 surround-sound mixes on the DVD-Audio discs of Chicago II and Chicago V, as well.) However, the “I…do…love…you” harmony part is still panned hard left-and-right.7. Free Form GuitarIt’s on this track that I noticed the biggest difference from the original. There is a lot of phase-shifting in it that I never noticed before, and the volume remains at a constant level at the end, instead of slightly fading. According to the album’s original liner notes, “no electronic gimmicks or effects were used in the recording of this selection,” so I’m wondering if the flat EQ has brought out the phase-shifting? Or was it introduced in the process of the remix? I even went back and listened to the original again and wasn’t able to detect any phase-shifting at all. Either way, the piece always leaves me speechless.8. South California PurplesThe bass sounds heavier and there’s some slap-back echo added to Robert’s vocals. And the line from “I Am The Walrus” is less distorted.9. I’m A ManThe whole thing sounds heavily compressed, losing most of its original dynamic range. This is probably the worst-sounding song in the remixes.10. Prologue (August 29, 1968)"The whole world is watching" was a phrase chanted by anti-Vietnam War demonstrators outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The band used the recording of the chant as an intro to the following song, Someday. On the original mix, the chant would get out of sync with the intro. Now it has been synchronized to match the intro. I assume that Jessup used some time-stretching software to do this, but it’s nice for us OCD folks to have it in sync now. (In the Misheard Lyrics Department, I used to think they were saying “the whole world’s funny!” It wasn’t until years later, while watching a documentary on Vietnam, that I discovered what they were really saying.)11. Someday (August 29, 1968)Robert’s vocal has been pushed more up front and the horns have been pushed back in the mix.12. LiberationAs I said earlier, one thing I’ve always noticed about this song is that its EQ sounded flat compared to all of the other songs. Well, now that Jessup has kept the EQ flat on all of the other songs, this one seems to blend right in. Also, Terry’s guitar rings nicely when he starts the song back up at 11:24, after the crescendo.I did a spot-check of the reviews of the remix on Amazon, and they were mostly negative, which was to be expected. I hate assigning numbers to a review, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars. Personally, I would have done the remix differently than Jessup, but I don’t know exactly what he had to work with. Perhaps the multi-track tapes have deteriorated more than Robert Lamm is aware of. From the rest of his recent interview, I got the impression that, like John Lennon, he’s not really concerned with sound quality and technical issues so much as the creative aspects of the band he’s in.Will this be my new “go-to” version of the album? Probably not. But it’s nice to know that it’s there when I want to hear it in a new way. And it’s a nice way to revisit a work of art that I’ve come to think of as an old friend.

I've had these for a few weeks now and I have to say that they are pretty great. They're just the right size for portioning ingredients like diced onions or tomatoes and they're great for making pudding to enjoy later. My only complaint is that they're just ever so slightly too small to fit in the dishwasher so they're a handwash only item for me but that might be different for you.All in all I say get a set, they're so handy to have!

I use these for freezing onion after I chop them. They are a perfect size. The lids fit well.

Decoran la nevera y son utiles

These little containers are little and very functional for portion sized food as well as storing cut up fruit or veggies. Very transportable. And cute.

I use these for avacado dip and small portion left overs. Just right for freezer sized portions. Freeze, thaw and eat, all in one bowl.

I love these 1-cup storage containers. The dishes are microwaveable and dishwasher-safe, although the seals are not microwaveable. I can make a large portion of main dish or dessert, then divide into portions to be used as needed. I don't know if they can go in the freezer.

Perfect for storing leftovers and managing portion sizes.

We use this size most often because we are Seniors and often have leftovers from meals. This is the perfect size to store, heat and serve--cuts down on waste and dirty dishes! Love them!