A Trip to the Coast Will Hopefully Trigger Some Creative Inspiration!
For the most part, I have been in a creative slump for a while.
Having felt no pressing reasons to change that situation, I have just let it unfold as it will, hoping that eventually the creative muse will return.
Beach near LaPush, Washington
On Sunday, we unexpectedly ended up taking a trip out to the Pacific Coast beaches — among many other stops in a 12-hour road trip — which is one of the places where a lot of the best "blank" beach stones I use to paint Alchemy Stones come from.
The combination of basalt fragments and violent Pacific Ocean surf produces exceptionally smooth flat rocks, idea for the type of intricate painting I do.
As I was sitting out there on the beach, sifting through the many potential candidates to be brought home, it made me think about how often it has held true that getting new art supplies has served as a creative catalyst to get going again whenever I have been experiencing a creative block.
Why I love going to this particular beach!
I suppose it would be easy to say "yeah, but you're just picking up rocks on the beach," but these particular stones are basically my "raw materials" for the art I create so in my mind that makes them count as art supplies!
Strange as it might seem, even while I was sitting there filling my bag, I started feeling like I wanted to get back into painting and like what I was doing was actually "interesting" again!
I realized that sometimes we just get a bit tired and bored with ourselves.
The fact that it has also been an exceptionally slow year so far hasn't helped much, either. Whereas I don't feel overly attached to commercialism, I will say that it helps the old self-esteem when people actually buy something you've created!
Huge logs have been cast all the way to the tide line by storms
I do have a few projects out in the horizon that I need to start working on.
For one, my wife is teaching at a spiritual retreat in Idaho next year — yes I know that's a long way off — and she wants to give an Alchemy Stone to each of the people who attend her workshop... which is estimated to be about 20.
Sure, I realize that's nepotism at its finest but at the same time it's also a good form of advertising so I need to produce something really nice.
Meanwhile, I am only just getting started on getting my eBay listings transferred to my store here on our own HiveList... looking forward to getting more of that done. Just have to find the time!
Thanks for visiting! Feel free to leave a comment, if you feel so inspired... engagement is part of what makes Hive such a cool venue!
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!
2023.06.27 AS-TXT-160/128
Do you know you can buy and sell on Hivelist Classified Community. You can also advertise seeking services or products on Hivelist Classified Community.
For example, you may sell your creative works by posting classified ads in Hivelist Classified for free. You can advertise for job vacancies, home help, nursing services etc. in your locality. You may even get paid through upvotes for your ads.
When you post your ads to Hivelist Classifieds Community, use one or more of the Hivelist Tags appropriate to your ad. Your post will then be featured in the Hivelist Classifieds Community and also in Hivelist.org.
You have nothing to lose but everything to gain. Try it.
Click on the banner below to check out the Community:
Posted using HiveLIST
Thanks for commenting @xyz.store. I actually have signed up for a HiveList online store and am in the set-up phase and soon will be transferring a lot of my creative work listings from eBay to HiveList.
Great, @alchemystones.
May I suggest that you join the 50K List Power Club I formed recently. I have already got almost 30 members and I intend to stop it at 30. I give preference votes to members whose posts contain Hivelist tags. You may when you have listed your goods on Hivelist.Store, start posting on Hivelist.org or Hivelist Classified Community articles promoting your products and may be invite others to write articles reviewing your products, buying experience etc. I can upvote these posts to help you in your promotion.
Perhaps you should consider selling other semi-precious stones in addition to what you have been showcasing thus far.
To be a member of the club you will need to agree to abide by a few terms and conditions as follows:
a) Use the Hivelist tags properly as per the Hivelist.io rules. For example, use the #contests tag ONLY when you are organizing, participating in or promoting a contest.
b) Provide a descriptive sentence with a clickable link (see sample below) to the contest, event, services, sales page etc. In your case to the listing in Hivelist.Store.
c) The text and images in your post are free of plagiarism.
d) Your post articles / write-ups are of reasonable length.
e) You commit to power-up ALL your earnings in LIST tokens regularly as you earn them until you reach 50k List Power.
f) Upon reaching 50K List Power, you need to power-up only 50% of your subsequent LIST token earnings to continue receiving my support. You are free to use the other 50% as you like after that.
If you are agreeable to the above, reply to this comment with a "YES".
You may find this link informative and useful:
A Hive Witness and Innovator Paving the Way for Web3 Adoption
Posted using HiveLIST