Art and Creativity Journal: Getting Oriented for a New Year

5 days ago

Happy New Year!

One of the things I like the most about January 1st is that I get to draw a symbolic line under the year that went and open a new page for the new year.

First stone of 2025 has been painted!

My first day of a new year typically starts with rounding up any painted stones completed — but not signed and finished — during the previous year and getting them marked and photographed as belonging to last year.

I have kept a pretty detailed log of my work since about 2013, and I do my best to always keep it up to date. Last year's final stone ended up being no. AS24-176.

That makes 2024 my most productive year since Covid, but still only about half the work I was completing annually in 2019 and before.

The briginning

Because New Year's Day is usually just a slow and lazy day, I took a little time to myself to paint the first stone of 2025. After meditating on it for a bit, decided to make it a Heart Chakra stone... because it felt symbolically right to start with something heart centered.

And yes, I'm being a bit "woo-woo" here...

All in all, it turned out pretty nicely and I feel good about starting the year on a positive note.

Progressing

Next on the agenda is going to be taking inventory after the holiday markets, both to make sure that actual stock matches stock listed for sale online and to get a sense of where I need to focus my creative attention for the next few months.

I don't think I'm going to make any specific Hive goals for 2025, although — in a very general sense — I am still working towards rebuilding this art blog to where it was before being forced to power it almost completely down in order to help pay a tax liability.

Still haven't decided whether or not to fire up a 2025 edition of "The 100-Day Project," but I'm not going to force it unless it feels like the right thing to undertake. I'm currently leaning the affirmative direction on that one.

Almost done

This is also the time of the year when we start to cast about for which events we will attend as vendors, this year. We have a stable group of events that are pretty much a given every year, but are always 3-4 "flexible" spots to be filled. It seems likely that we will be looking more into things like New Age and alternative health fairs for this year... always seems to be a very welcoming and receptive demographic.

Other than the Christmas markets, it's unlikely that we'll be doing any "Arts and Crafts" type markets.

I appreciate you coming to visit and please do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!

Thank You!

If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!

Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a part time living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.

Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!

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