Step 7 Blog Post- Metamorphosis (Reflection)
1. Address the following questions:
a. What challenges did you overcome throughout this action project? How did you go about
overcoming these challenges?
. The main issues I had were time management and feeling burnt out. I was slightly worried about how long I have been taking with these paintings but, I knew that everyone who ordered was very patient. Hopefully, soon I will finish the rest of the paintings. Since summer is coming up, I will have the time to complete the project. Furthermore, when talking to my mentor I remember I mentioned how the orders were not placed one at a time. Since many of them came in loads, I was not able to keep up with them. Because of the sudden influx of orders, lots of customers were kept waiting. To work around this, I limited the number of painting orders I took a month and depending on how many I finished I could have increased or decreased that number.
b. How did this action change the way you think?
After completing this action, I am more hopeful about the difference one person can make in other people’s lives. I wasn’t convinced that my actions would benefit people enough to cause gratuity, but after hearing the stories of those who do use MAC as a resource and a way to help them cope with their illness, I am a lot more inspired to do actions like this more often. In addition, this action changed my views on my artistic potential. I never thought I would be able to make art for other people as frequently as I had been because usually to complete art, I need to be inspired. Naturally, not every piece was something I was interested in creating, but I’m glad I was able to experience that.
c. How did this investigation/action impact your future decisions?
In the future, I hope to continue this project on a smaller scale. I’m thinking that maybe once a year I’ll take some orders and donate the money. I also want to consider different causes as well. While I think MAC is a great cause I don’t want to limit myself. Also, in the future, I would like to charge more for the art because the amount of time it takes me to make is disproportionate to the amount I charge. I underestimated how much people were willing to pay for personalized art.
d. What impact will this investigation/action have on others locally and/or globally?
Hopefully, this action will help the people seeking wellness locally at MAC have the resources they need to express themselves artistically. Also, for those who can’t afford to pay the cost of joining MAC, my work will bring down their expenses. As for globally, my project can inspire others around the world to raise money for the arts and the mental health community as they are both in need of it.