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Zoungy Kligge's avatar

Hey Michael, I’ve seen this concept represented by a graph of two intertwining sets of steps, offset by a half step. When confidence is climbing, skills acquisition is leveling off. Then confidence flatlines, but during these periods skillsets are improving. I actually wrote about it last year at some point, too, with a drawing of what I mean… https://zoungyart.substack.com/i/142517468/learning-to-get-good-vs-getting-good

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Michael Chesley Johnson's avatar

Ha, great minds think alike! I like your diagram, the spiral double helix. I struggled with trying to come up with a nice diagram, but failed. Good job!

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Zoungy Kligge's avatar

Thanks! It wasn’t my idea (the diagram) but I wanted to make something with a little more clarity than I’ve seen in the past

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Faye-Marie Adams's avatar

This was a helpful insight, I'm on that rollercoaster while friends remark on my growth, the grasp of where I'm headed doesn't even seem on the horizon to me. But it's my long term plan and mostly about the journey rather than the end goal (if it exists) a completely opposite approach to my norm of problem solving fast outcomes. Learning to calm pace & increase compassion are the keys for me.

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Michael Chesley Johnson's avatar

Thank you! Calm, and steady as she goes. You'll get there!

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Trina Stephenson's avatar

Creativity is adaptation, confidence is helped by sales and positive remarks. Being an artist is a struggle between positive and negative emotions often coming from the external world.

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K D Swaydan's avatar

Your words resonated with me! Especially wondering if I can make the "magic" happen again. Sometimes I'll hit a streak of good paintings then paint a dud that I want to fling over the hillside. However, if I persist, I might be able to turn the dud into something better, or just paint over it and start fresh. Thanks, as always, for your insights. Happy painting!

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Michael Chesley Johnson's avatar

Hang in there!

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Dave Crowell's avatar

If you overlayed the graphs of my skill and confidence there would be a brief spike in confidence fairly early one that would then drop off. This would be the initial beginner's confidence brought on by learning the initial basics and feeling a surge of accomplishment. The fall off would come from realizing how much more there was to learn before mastery.

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Chidanand M's avatar

Inspiring all creatives for learning, experiment, and adapt, to be consistently on the move in the journey of artlife. When one understands the realities of the world, the struggles of an artist can be overcome to a large extent.

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