Nginx giving "No such file or directory" error for static files

Question

I am trying to deploy a site on to a linux server following Corey Schafer's guide for Flask.

My site is working, but nginx is unable to read/access/find the static folder and the files within.

I initially removed the default sites-enabled and created a custom one:

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Then:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/flaskblog

This is what I input into that file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name DOMAIN_IP;

    location /static {
        alias /Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static;
    }

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
        include /etc/nginx/proxy_params;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

But all static pages return 404

If I check the error log of nginx I see:

   2022/06/03 06:09:42 [error] 71064#71064: *1 open() "/Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static/main.css" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 217.146.83.247, server: IP, request: "GET /static/main.css HTTP/1.1", host: "IP", referrer: "http://IP/"
2022/06/03 06:09:42 [error] 71064#71064: *1 open() "/Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static/profile_pics/271fcf0ffe2a92aa.jpg" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 217.146.83.247, server: IP, request: "GET /static/profile_pics/271fcf0ffe2a92aa.jpg HTTP/1.1", host: "IP", referrer: "http://IP/"
2022/06/03 06:09:42 [error] 71064#71064: *4 open() "/Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static/profile_pics/default.jpg" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 217.146.83.247, server: IP, request: "GET /static/profile_pics/default.jpg HTTP/1.1", host: "IP", referrer: "http://IP/"
2022/06/03 06:09:45 [error] 71064#71064: *4 open() "/Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static/main.css" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 217.146.83.247, server: IP, request: "GET /static/main.css HTTP/1.1", host: "IP", referrer: "http://IP/home"

So I can see that nginx is going to the correct location, so I don't understand why it is saying "No such file or directory"

I have tried both

location /static {
        alias /Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static;
    }

and

location /static {
        root /Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog;
    }

And both produce the same error and same location.

I have also cd'd down and then done ls at each point to check that everything is in the right place and everything seems in order

(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog$ ls
flaskblog  __pycache__  requirements.txt  run.py  venv
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog$ cd flaskblog
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog/flaskblog$ ls
config.py  errors  __init__.py  main  models.py  posts  __pycache__  site.db  static  templates  users
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog/flaskblog$ cd static
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static$ ls
main.css  profile_pics
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static$ cd main.css
-bash: cd: main.css: Not a directory
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static$ cd profile_pics
(venv) charles@flask-server:~/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static/profile_pics$ ls

And if I go to "/Users/myname/VScode/Flask_Blog/flaskblog/static" on my personal machine it goes to the correct place.

Thank you for any help.