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Megan's avatar

Wow! Thank you for this. You have described the hustle/grind culture individual accomplishment goal setting very clearly. I have struggled with the online culture of challenges and tutorials and have felt the shame of not living up to some arbitrary standards of creativity. Ugh. Thank you for helping me feel less alone!

“It’s about reciprocity not prestige.” Community is key!

Mel Mitchell-Jackson's avatar

Yess! Thank you for reading. I’m so glad it resonates. I think the self directed nature of a lot of those challenges and tutorials completely removes feedback and community which is essential to actually learning.

We have to apply what we watch and then get feedback on it. It’s why I run a discord for all my students, to help them continue to persist in the practice, even if their approach is self directed!

You can do this yourself too by finding local communities of folks making stuff like what you make. I just started a plein air group and I also go to a knitting community night. Most of the problems I can’t solve or see are supported by others!

Claire Loon Baldwin's avatar

Love how you use collage, it's so cool seeing tactile stuff in an increasingly flat, digital world. Excited to follow along for more!

Mel Mitchell-Jackson's avatar

thank you so much! it’s one of the few places where i feel like i can design and not have my entire brain polluted by notifications of another thing to do

Débora Figueiredo's avatar

“are invitations for adaptation and building a better system that supports you” - I resonate a lot with this Mel! Curiously, today I write a blog post about a part of this path in my creative practice, I’m doing this adaptation process that you refer, for some time and right now, I feel like I'm in a more wide space to create in a organic, integrated and free way.

Mel Mitchell-Jackson's avatar

ah i love this! incredible that we have the synchronicity!