A couple of days ago, I wrote a post that seemed a bit like an admission of defeat in the face of art and creativity.
I've been thinking a fair bit about that and came to the realization that I wasn't exactly admitting to defeat
here, just growing realistic about the continued pursuit of things creative and specifically my artwork.
Just a narrow waterway makes Indian Island "an island"
I also considered the fact that I have a slowly declining and dying art supplies business and maybe the time has come to simply merge the two into one, and see if maybe I can develop some kind of synergy that might allow me to have both of these move forward, side by side.
My art supplies business is actually the business of selling various beachcombed objects to artists, Jewelers and other creatives around the world who like to work with found objects, Particularly with a seaside or marine orientation. We're talking everything from shells, to sea glass, to old pottery, to driftwood and more.
The reason I decided these two might be able to work well side by side — after more than a decade of very clearly keeping the two separate — is that the two pretty much have identical roots: they start on the beach!
Shell beach. The white band is all broken clam and oyster shells
Yesterday, I did a little more thinking about it while taking a trip to a small beach park known locally as oyster shell beach. Interestingly (sadly?) enough, it was the first time I'd gone to this particular beach in about a decade because back then it didn't really have the right kind of rocks to paint, and I didn't find any sea glass there either.
Ironically, this little beach park is located right across the street from the Indian Island naval magazine where the US Navy loads ammunition and bombs and missiles onto ships for the entire Pacific fleet. We have always joked that if things go terribly terribly wrong, we're pretty safe here in the sense that should any bombs be lobbed around we will be out of the game instantaneously because all that will be left this area is a giant smoking hole in the ground!
Yes, that's a bit of grotesque humor for you.
A large madrona tree grows at water's edge
Anyway what was sad about my trip to what used to be Shell Beach was that evidently something has changed in the environment and the only thing I saw there were lots and lots of old broken shells and they clearly were not from oysters or clams from recent times and seasons. Global warming? I really don't know.
And while I was able to clear my head a little bit it also made me realize that I need to cast further about for new places to visit if I'm going to make good on this idea. I have some ideas of where I could go and where I might have better luck, but it seems like I will have to go further and further afield to more and more inaccessible places to have any chance at all.
Seems like these days everybody is competing for fewer and fewer resources, and there are more and more people competing for them.
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!
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2025.07.20 AS-TXT-334/304