I am taking a mental health break from social media.The anxiety of worrying about missing something that I felt throughout the day has passed. The worrying that I am not doing enough to promote my artwork, or that everyone else has better ideas and marketing skills is not at the front of my mind anymore. I'm realizing that the world of Facebook can go on without me and it doesn't matter. I still hear about important news and I'm realizing that a lot of the other stuff was mental clutter that did not help my day to day work and life. Also, Facebook wants us to be addicted. And I was....and I don't necessarily like giving huge companies want they want.
So, now I'm faced with needing a way to talk about the day to day work that's happening in my studio. I have a newsletter, but that is not the right place. I think a newsletter is for formal announcement and telling people about big things. I want to document and share little things with anyone who has any interest in what I'm doing. Which leads me to the blog function of my website. I never used it before, because I was already maintaining an Instagram and business Facebook page, a blog seemed redundant.
What's new?
So, here is where I start a blog. I don't know if anyone will ever read it. It will function like a studio journal for myself. I'll add photos of what I'm doing, and ideas for where I'm going and what is influencing my painting at any given time.
What you see in this picture is a brand new Mandala. I thought I was done painting them, but this one insisted and gave me ideas for a bunch more. I'm going to keep going with them. I still have a lot of photos I took when I was actively making Mandalas from the plants in my yard. I think it is ok to revisit some of the photos I used in previous Mandala paintings too. New ideas will grow out of the old ones I think.
If you have read this far -- thank you. And if you like the Mandala above, you might be interested in looking at the others I have done (follow this link to that page in my portfolio). I just dropped off all of the 20" square Mandalas that I have to the DaVallia Gallery in Chester. They would be happy to show them to you in person and help you take your favorite home.