Now is a Time for Composting

Now is the time for discarding that which should no longer play a part in one's life. Allow it to compost throughout the winter and become fertile soil to nurture new seeds of creativity in early spring. By allowing the discarded experiences to compost, the lessons learned from these experiences transform and support the growth and discovery that comes with spring and summer. This is the lesson of the Celtic Calendar and of the recent celebration of Samhain, the first day of Celtic Winter. Thank you, Kate Southworth, for bringing my attention to this important time of year as well as the importance it now plays in my journey as an artist. Your Calendrical Art workshop has come at just the right time.

I've been pondering what I should be discarding, fully aware that I spread myself far too thin and that stunted my own growth by doing so.  I've also been aware that in order to move forward and follow my own path as an ever-evolving artist, I have to weed my garden so that the ideas and inspirations I wish to continue nurturing will have a better chance to grow strong and exquisite.  Last evening I pulled my first giant weed out of my garden and it now lays upon the compost heap.  

Creating courses for Skillshare is something that will no longer devour my time, energy and attention.  After they closed my Color Scheme Course Part II only hours after I finally was able to upload the fifteen lessons successfully ... (Skillshare had an upload glitch on their end which devoured hours of my time last week in failed attempts. 

Email sent to me on November 3rd:

Hi Chris,
 
Thanks for your message. We’re aware of an issue with class videos not uploading or playing as expected due to an outage with Cloudflare, our video provider.
 
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience while our team works to resolve this issue. Please let us know if there's anything we can offer to help with in the meantime.
 
Best,
Tiago

On November 6th I received this Email:

Hi Chris,
 
We can confirm this issue has been fully resolved.
 
We appreciate your patience during this process.
 
Feel free to reach out if you need any further assistance.
 
Best,
Tiago

Now I realize that the problem was NOT completely resolved.  I double checked each and every video lesson to assure that both the visuals and the audio played back well.  In the preview mode, they played back beautifully.  I was thrilled to finally hit the PUBLISH button and allow access to my students.  Only a few hours later I received notice that my new course had been closed for the following reason:

"While reviewing your class, we noticed some violations of our Class Guidelines - http://skl.sh/1GHoHIP. We would be happy to help you identify these violations so you can make edits and get your class back on Skillshare as soon as possible. 

All classes must meet our minimum standards for video and audio quality, and unfortunately, we noticed that the following lessons do not meet our standards:Lesson

1 - Introduction to Part TwoLesson

2 - Review of Part OneLesson

4 - BrushesLesson

5 - PaperLesson

6- Mixing Consistency for Successful WashesLesson

7 - Pulling the Puddle TechniqueLesson

9 - Working in Series-

Audio was not clear due to background hums, fuzziness, and crackling."

The video above is the lesson on Color Scheme #3 that I was very excited about adding to both the Skillshare version of the course as well as to my website version.  Please let me know if you have a problem with the audio of the video above or of the following video:  Link

 My incredibly heavy heart of yesterday already feels lighter. 

A year ago when Skillshare closed down dozens of classe, not only mine but also a multitude of classes by teachers who had been with them far longer than I. To pour salt on the wound, Skillshare changed their method of paying teachers.  For most of us that meant a large cut in our monthly income. I held off cutting the cord with Skilshare because of my loyal students on that platform.  Now I must trust that if there is still more they can learn from me, they will find their way to my website and The Artit's Community, or to one of the live workshops I've begun scheduling again after the COVID world shutdown.

I wonder what I will toss onto the compost next.  Hmmmmm.

The lesson in the top video, Color Scheme #3 will be added to the color Scheme Game this afternoon along with the other new videos that were part of the class I created for Skillshare.

Today is a new, brighter day.  I thank all of you have have supported me as I made this decision.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Chris