It is the last day of 2023, and I am experiencing this day as a sort of "final respite" before striking out in a new direction.
I have long held that if you want to be a commercially viable artist, it does you no good to just "dabble." Of course, not everyone aspires to pursue both the creative and the business ends of art, and that's totally OK.
My own ambition was always to turn my art into something akin to a part time job, perhaps as a solution to not actually going out in the world and taking a part-time job, working for someone else.
In the beginning... around 2010-2015... I just pretty much "dabbled," not really taking what I was doing very seriously. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed a moderate degree of online success, particularly selling through Etsy, with the high point being 2015.
So I "got more serious."
Ironically, online sales have been all downhill since then.
I guess we all have "stories" that we tell ourselves about the why's and how's of life... and I have to "own" the objective truth that between 2015 and 2023, the idea of "painted rocks" went from something extremely esoteric and exotic... to being relatively commonplace.
Most of that had to do with the "Your Town Rocks!" movement (substitute in the name of your town/city for "your town") which got started in 2016... and suddenly everybody was painting on rocks and leaving them in public spaces for others to find... almost like a rock-based form of Geocaching.
In a sense, I was "demoted" from artist to being someone trying to make money from what everyone was seeing as "free family fun."
At some point, there as over 3,000 rock painting groups around the world!
Notwithstanding the fact that we continued to sell well at face-to-face events, this whole movement substantially killed the idea of "rocks as art." Doesn't really matter whether we're not comparing apples to apples. All that matters is current sentiment.
Of course, Covid lockdowns put a major damper on the whole "friendship rocks" movement. Whereas rock painting groups are still active, the scale of them has diminished by a good 75%.
And so, 2024 feels like the right time to "start over," resuming more active social media, blogging, and so forth. For the past 5 years or so, it has mostly felt like banging our heads against a wall. But frankly? I'm pretty tired of that!
Of course, I don't know what 2024 will bring, but I do know this: I still really enjoy creating mandala painted rocks, and I do know that people really like them... and increasingly recognize that Alchemy Stones are art, and not just "another rock like my kid paints... why should I PAY for that?"
Our four holiday shows during November and December went quite well... and even though online sales didn't get any better, it somehow feels like the right time to build that part again... with a more organized and coordinated effort... based not on the "old ways," but on what we have learned since we resumed "getting out there," post-Covid.
Today, though, I'm mostly going to enjoy "the quiet before the storm!"
Happy New Year and thank you to everyone who has visited these pages during the past year... and we'll see you again in 2024!
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!
My Alchemy Stones Patreon appeal
Alchemy Stones web site and blog
Regardless, your upvotes and comments are always appreciated!
Thank you for supporting independent art!
2023.12.31 AS-TXT-189/157