I can’t be an art hermit, apparently

Without in-person students, I wouldn't have become an online teacher.
I never realised how deeply connected the two things were until today.

I had my first in-studio student since 2019, and it genuinely feels like things make sense again. Like, I know, that sounds dramatic, but I teach a lot of classes on Skillshare and the majority of them are based on lessons I've taught to many, many students in-person (individual and groups) over the last couple of decades+. Without them, my online teaching wouldn't exist: I teach what I teach.

This helps to explain why the last few years (without in-person art tuition) have felt so different (among other reasons, obviously). I was missing a crucial reason I make classes: to share what I've shared in-person with as many people as I can... I am a sharer, but I wouldn’t have created lessons based on my private processes alone. I feel like I should’ve figured this out a lot sooner, but today is a good day to discover it (rather than never).

Now, after years without that organic, live human experience, I feel a huge positive energy shift in my teaching career. Don't get me wrong, I made some damn good online classes over the past few years, but I - inside - felt like something was missing from the equation; I just couldn’t put a finger on it. I nebulously believed it was about the rest of the rather surreal and difficult time since January 2020.

Today highlighted what that missing thing was... it was sharing what I love and know with a real human in the same room.

Guess I’m not cut out to be a total art hermit after all. ;)