Happy New Year!

I am cautiously dipping my toe into that hopeful feeling. Normally - just as I am about to settle into that - I get this absolute gut punch. This year, I am not into gut punches. I have had enough! Like seriously now Dude!

My goal this year is to allow myself to feel/experience more joy. With everything going on in this world, don't we all need more?

One thing I want to do is send small art to people. To test out a printer for some consulting projects, I made some postcards of the above piece and will be sending it to some people. I found some old stationary that was used to make point of purchase signage at the shop and farmer's markets. They are decent card stock, but like watercolor paper I think being older- ink responds to it a little differently. They are fine to share, but I am not selling these.

I am learning more about printing art (the secret is the right paper) and will sell items once I feel that is dialed in some more. As I clean up/out my space(s), have found some other pieces that I plan to scan, print and send as well. Brain injury is weird. For some pieces, it is like Christmas with me seeing an item I created again like it is a first time I saw it. If you want one, send me a mailing address and I will be glad to share with you as well.

Mutual Aid

I did my bi-annual donation of hats to a local library. I have to admit, the process left a sour taste in my mouth this time with the librarians there being 1. surprised that I donated "pretty hats" to people who needed them. (Was I supposed to make ugly ones?) Then 2. when I mentioned they were not wool as per instructions on their newsletter post, one of the librarians asked me to make her one in wool. A blue one.

A little advice. People who would be open to a donation of a hat deserve pretty ones too. Fuck off if you think that you need to police what people who are not well off receive. Also, don't turn around and ask that person donating them to then make one for you. I did pause and look into my stash. Thankfully, I did stop myself because old me would have made it and dropped it off ASAP. New me realized it was a toxic thing for her to do after saying others don't deserve those hats and to ask for one in wool no less (more expensive).

Meh, I reached out to another organization recommended to me about hat donations in the future. It sucks though. I have three made and one WIP so far with this batch.

Community Building

I want to do a community art project. I learned about Artist Trading Cards, recently. The deal is that you don't sell them, you trade them like sports trading cards. (Click the link to learn more.) I will talk more about them in a video soon. I spoke to a few places where I'd like to do this as a installation. A cork board with cards - you leave one, you grab one kind of thing. I hope to model this in a couple places this year and once we flesh this out some more, share the process with others so they can do this in their communities.

Do you have to be an "artist"? Nope. I am not one really. I just share my journey playing with different media as I recover from [waves arms about]... The world is going through a lot. We need more people making and sharing sparks of joy. Professionals, regular humans, children... lets share our art!

The Pairing Down of Things and I Could Also Use an Income

I have sold some art, crochet items and have been curating my archive of "stuff." My health is at a point where I can say I am stabilized and as confidence improves, I plan to sell with more regularity this year. I am purposefully making slow forward movement and doing a lot of foundation building to make this "hope" a more solid feeling not this glimmer before doom feeling.

I sold a lot of the major assets I owned to try to survive while I was mad sick. Not gonna lie, I have a lot of things, but they are not worth a whole lot individually. Some items are of no monetary value, they just take up space. A lot of items are useful to displaying items for sale, props for an Instagram life (food/farm/craft), random things,... It is time for them to move on to new homes. I will be including items in sales of my own farm/food/art creations as I find, clean, fix, repurpose, etc. them.

I have started to piece meal an income again and need to have a stable amount coming in regular like for adulting things like bills, expenses, savings... That regular amount is a tough nut to crack in this economy, but I have plans... In the meantime, if you want to support this crazy journey: buy a thing, leave a tip, pay for this semi-random ponderings newsletter that I want to be more regular...

Thanks! ~S