MELODY VAUGHAN
CREATIVE MENTORING TENDING TO CULTURES OF CARE
Hi, I’m Melody (they/them)
I’m committed to working with professional artists, designers & contemporary craft makers who want to build ethical and sustainable creative practices full of care.
If that’s you, welcome! I’m looking forward to being in relationship with you.
*this new website is a work in progress (aren’t we all?) which I’m building myself. You will find many of the pages/links don’t work yet. Thank you for your patience!
In my work I prioritise the experience and the needs of the humans at the centre of creative practices.
I take a trauma-informed, holistic, person-centred approach to my mentoring practice.
This is underpinned by a commitment to social and climate justice, informed by ongoing engagement with, and exploration of, intersectional feminism, decolonial shadow work, radical imagination and post-capitalist futures.
This work is conducted with an awareness of how everything we do in our creative practices is situated within the wider context of our lives and the world.
We are entangled in systems that are not built to care for us, but surviving within the creative sector does not mean recreating inhumane conditions for ourselves.
Instead, let’s embed your creative practice with care at the foundation, in service to you and the life you want to lead, responsive to your needs, adaptable to your existing priorities whilst also acknowledging your responsibilities to other people and the planet.
I believe that creating new systems for living requires everyone bringing their own unique imagination and finding their own way to contribute to those different futures in the present – your artistic work is a vital part of this.
If you are feeling called to challenge inherited ideas of what a creative practice should look like, to find your own way, and would like some support in this we could work together 1:1
or if self-directed reflection is more your thing, zip down the page for some resources.
“Makers occupy a cultural space of storytelling, bearing witness, material practice considerations and concerns; ethics, safe environment(s) and colleague inclusion. Makers also hold space between economic realities and the creative arts, heritage and cultural discourses and various institutions, from providing academic research to informing policy making. Makers provide content for magazine and journals, social media and our own selling platforms.
Makers are people, and therefore the full-spectrum experience of makers requires careful listening and gentle supportive advocacy. Melody brings this holistic awareness, as a socially-engaged creative, they are able to help you find the confidence to stand with strength in your own cultural intelligence and crafts practice.”
Imogen Bright Moon, Artist + Writer in Craft
WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK WITH ME?
I don’t have the answers, but I am full of questions, which I think will give you a sense of what occupies my thoughts about the work we do and the contexts we are working in:
imagining new futures
What if we accepted the responsibility of creating new things in the world and saw that as an opportunity for demonstrating our care and love for each other and this planet?
What if what you make has the power to change people’s minds and lives?
What would it be like to develop a creative practice that prioritises the future of humanity on this planet?
What if your unique creative vision is what the world needs right now?
navigating a creative practice under capitalism
What if a creative practice wasn’t modelled on capitalist frameworks of a ‘business’?
What if you didn’t take on the role of factory owner, factory foreman and factory worker within your creative practice?
What if artistic output wasn’t relied on to generate income?
What if we normalised artists having other jobs or sources of income?
What if artists were paid properly for all aspects of their work?
What if artists were supported by the sector instead of consumed by it?
What would it be like to accept that your practice will shift and change over time in ways you may not be able to anticipate or plan for?
What if you are the only person you need to please with your work?
What if slowness was ok?
What if old work was given space to shine again?
What if there were spaces for artists to share the challenges of their practices openly?
What if there are other ways to do this?
fertilising cultures of care
What if caring for the artist automatically cares for the art?
What if my practice took care of me?
What if my creative practice contributed to a culture of care (for other people and the planet)?
What if your experience, as the human within your creative practice, was honoured?
What if your creative practice was given the conditions it needs to thrive?
What if we tended to our creative practices like a beloved garden?
redefining creative practice
What would it feel like to widen the scope of what counts as part of your creative practice?
What would it feel like to let go of ideas about how your practice should look?
What if you didn’t need to worry about your own unique creativity being enough?
What if what you are doing now is actually ok?
What if we viewed creative practice as nature, having its own seasons and diversity of expression?
What if we took an experimental approach to building a creative practice?
What would it be like to allow nuance and uncertainty into your practice?
What if you made work like no one was watching?
What if you trusted your creativity to still be there after a period of inactivity?
What if reflection was a regular part of the creative journey and not only done at the end of things?
What are you interested in exploring?
[*this website is a work in progress, some of these links will not work for a while]
WORKING WITH ME 1:1
SELF DIRECTED RESOURCES
Sustainability & ethical practice
Seasonal reflection prompts
The why behind the work
Confident communication
Sign up to my emails to get seasonally themed reflection prompts & hear more about ways we can work together.
copyright 2025 MELODY VAUGHAN