I was really struck by Soals’ post about overcoming the good art complex because this is something that has had a certain impact on my life as well. From my own experiences, I can definitely empathize with the pressure that the only valid art is “good” art, and the idea of art only being possible with mastery and that mastery being represented as realism. By putting very rigid notions of what it means to be “art” we end up limiting who is “allowed” to create, when in actuality art doesn’t need to achieve these mind-boggling feats that we expect it to in order for it to be of worth. When I show someone something I’ve drawn or created, I feel the need to do an immediate disclaimer as they look at it by saying “I’m not an artist but here it is” so that way if it is considered “bad” I don’t have as much personal stake in the matter. This is a very limiting and unfortunate byproduct of our Western notion of art, and it results in feelings of shame or inaccessibility over something that is inherently accessible. Instead of learning or growing for the enjoyment of a craft, people are instead learning for the sake of getting to put an arbitrary label of outward approval, and it takes the joy out of discovery. I absolutely agree with Soals’ statement that it’s important to push past these biases and rediscover yourself.

Reading Latenight11’s blog post about learning the ukulele reminded me of my own story of maintaining motivation and not giving up. Just like I had a support system that helped me when I doubted myself; they too had a support system in the form of their roommate. What made Latenight’s experience even better is that their roommate ended up joining them and they learned ukulele together, so this shared experience became even more fruitful when they had each other to keep the other accountable. You really get the sense reading all these posts that having someone who encourages you and gives you positive reinforcement makes all the difference when it comes to learning, and this is an approach that sees practical results.

Both of these posts helped me think more about the prompt and my own experiences, so thank you for writing Soals and Latenight11!