Mel Mitchell-Jackson | Persistent Bloom Retreats

Popping on to share a few shots from the studio lately. Oil paintings and watercolors of the Oakland Redwood forest and Eastern Sierra Mountains.

It was SO HOT today. I wore green pants and yeah, welcome to summer in the east bay! 🥵

Went out to paint the poppies at Shell Ridge today. Felt so good to be outside and study the colors from life. Looking forward to doing this again soon!

This is so excellent!!

Day 4 and Day 5 of #pleinairpril
Acryla Gouache in a mixed media sketchbook.

Gouache painting of a single orange poppy blowing in the wind with lupine surrounding it in purple and pink. Leaves and blades of grass peak through.

A Western Bluebird sits on a rusted out wheelbarrow drawn in colored pencil. Whispy poppies and lupine blow in the grassy background

#pleinairpril day 1: two studies of the Poppies and Lupine at Shell Ridge on Mt. Diablo.

Gouache and colored pencil in a talens art creation sketchbook!

A four panel meme from "The White Lotus," S3, Ep,6, Panel 1: Saxton: Why can't you just like my geneative A*I art? Panel 2: Chelsea: You have to be vulnerable enough to be bad at something to be good at it, but you're too much of a coward. Panel 3: Chelsea: Because you're soulless. Panel 4: Saxton disassociating

Absolutely ready for Miyazaki to turn into the angry earth spirit in Princess Mononoke to consume AI image generators whole.

We. Have. Had. Enough.

A cat in a meadow of flowers

Yumyan

A commission for @perseuspercy.bsky.social
Was an honour to paint him

you know what, I do really love that MySpace Tom is not in fact participating in a hostile government takeover.

a hand holding a small ceramic ring dish, shaped like a head of a calico cat dressed in a green babushka scarf with daisies on it

little babushcat ✨

The emboldened, rising tide of fascism in the US has me reflecting a lot about the importance of standing up for our marginalized communities in meaningful ways. There is power in unity - we must build our communities, support our neighbors, and stand together.

It lives!! My zine on how to have a go bag is in proofreading and editing stages. So excited to get this out there, assemble it, and start raising funds for folks impacted by the LA fires.

[“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The moneylenders, the know-nothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can.”]

Ursula le Guin, on the accusation that fantasy is an escape from reality

Thank you for saying this!! There are so many layers here but we all have to find ways to support ourselves and our art.

Whoa! Incredible!

Now more than ever.

Leaving Instagram for Clarity and Creativity Beyond the Boycott, Stories and Strategies to Help You Cut Ties with Meta

Read a preview of part of the script and leave me a comment on your thoughts on my Substack

Need some inspiration for something you can do today to piss off a billionaire? You too, can remove all Meta apps from your phone!

This shot will be the opener or ending of my next video essay on YouTube about leaving Instagram for clarity and creativity

green toned fog layers between tall redwood trees. in the foreground is a darker redwood and bay laurel tree surrounded by intense dark greens

Went hiking in the Redwoods during the pouring rain. The mist felt out of a fantasy world today!

#coastcard

two drafts

What do we call this kind of night? It’s not necessarily inviting yet not completely stark.

If you are feeling overwhelmed right now, focus on how to create.
Make a list of your favorite materials and write down why you gravitate towards them. Hone in on what brings you joy when using certain art supplies or instruments can be critical for turning to those instead of scrolling.

banana?!

YouTube video by Persistent Bloom Can Mushrooms Teach Us About Enduring the Dystopia of 2025?🌱🍄🎨

This is an excerpt from the script of my latest YouTube video. If you like what I shared, you can watch me paint while I talk more about this idea.

Can Mushrooms Teach Us About Enduring the Dystopia of 2025?🌱🍄🎨
youtu.be/4krJsYpuKzQ

you are either in a space of pulling back and syncing in to your most intimate communities offline OR you are puffing up your chest, ready to grow taller, continue sharing your story, and growing the network that is rooted underground.

As I go into 2025 as a public facing queer person, I trying to be filled with more hope than fear. I will not lean into doomer sentiments because I feel it is important to be a fruiting body. If you are like me you probably feel like being either the mycelium or the fruiting body right now.

the ones we see are fruiting bodies, part of a much larger network thriving within the soil called the mycelium. The community of the mushroom exists primarily underground, but a few pop forward for the fungi to spread spores and increase the strength of the larger, underground system.

mushrooms have some beautiful analogies about community, persistence, and communication that will be important for us to consider in response to our new political reality