Having a relatively peaceful day today, in fact it's a very peaceful day because pretty much the only thing I'm doing is painting rocks!
A few of today's Faerie Stones
Sometimes I forget about the meditative qualities of engaging in creative work and getting deep down inside it. I suppose painting tiny mandalas lends itself particularly well to entering a meditative state, because I have to be fully present and aware, and if my mind wanders even slightly, it is very easy for me to make a mistake!
Today, I'm more or less continuing where I left off yesterday, working on our really small stones of which I'm hoping to have about 50-60 finished by the first show in December.
Maybe that sounds like a lot, but let's keep in mind that I can paint five or six of these an hour. Maybe it's not particularly exciting work and certainly not representative of what I would be doing in the ideal world, but I'm happy to be doing them because they do help the overall promotion of my work.
More tiny stones, these finished previously
All that aside, I have to confess that what I have enjoyed the most about today is just the sense of peace that comes with sitting with some good music and quietly working on the painting in the creative corner of our house.
It made me realize that it has been a really long time since I last actually took the time to do this!
It also made me realize just how much these challenging economics times have made me push creative work into the background as "unimportant." But what is important, really? Where does good mental health fit on the scale of what is important?
Tomorrow we are unfortunately going to be out of town for most of the day so I don't think there will be much time for painting, but I'm hoping to recapture this mood on Tuesday... before we get too wrapped up in the Thanksgiving holiday.
I have a fairly long list of things I would like to have finished by December 1st, and the only way to really get to it is by simply taking the time to sit down and do it!
Maybe that sounds painfully obvious... but when you've gotten in the habit of declaring "other things" to be more important, the creative inspiration becomes a little slower to come. Creativity is much like any other human endeavor... it becomes easier when you practice a lot!
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If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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2023.11.19 AS-TXT-184/152