Sadly, the creativity doldrums continue to make their presence felt around here. Sadly — as well — I haven't really done anything of note in my creative space since the last time I posted to my art journal, over a month ago.
The other day I talked to a friend and colleague who went to the large Festival in Ocean Shores that we usually think of as ”our best event of the year.” Sadly, this year we were not invited to attend as vendors.
Anyway, she reported back that this year's event was rather poorly attended, not advertised and promoted nearly as much as in the past, and both the presenters as well as the vendors seemed somewhat absent, as if the organizer's heart really wasn't in it.
Her commentary was that we didn't really miss anything by not going this year.
Hearing this leaves me with mixed feelings of sorts. On one hand it is sort of a relief that we didn't put a bunch of effort into going to an event that would have left us feeling disappointed, on the other hand it is depressing to think that our best sales event — potentially — of 2025 will now go into the record books as a big fat zero.
Meanwhile, it seems like the reality of the art world in 2025 is increasingly being represented by a what I find in my e-mail inbox every morning.
Very rarely do I find a sales notification, or on serious inquiry from a potential customer, but I do find loads of increasingly strident pieces of advertising on behalf of artists groups, screaming about their sales and their ”never before” offers.
People are also beating down my door to sell me so-called "programs" to help me market my art and have a better presence online. Of course, the problem with these is that not only do they offer cookie cutter solutions that will not fit my very much NON cookie cutter work, they also typically are asking you to spend anywhere from $500 to $3000 up front, without any guarantee that what they're doing is going to do you any good.
Generally, I find that the biggest problem with prepackaged cookie cutter art marketing ”solutions” is that they're geared 100% towards people who sell flat art — that is to say, painters and photographers — that can be turned into mouse pads and mug designs and T-shirts and couch cushions.
It seems to me that the state of art in 2025 isn't that you sell your actual art; it's that you sell bumper stickers with your art printed on them. Call me old fashioned, but that wasn't at all what I had in mind when I decided to pursue the creative path!
And yet?
It seems like the writing on the wall is that unless you're into selling your soul with printed goods, you shouldn't expect to do much with your art.
Walking around with this information in my back pocket certainly hasn't helped inspire me to pick up my art supplies to start creating again. Besides, the economic situation is such that I can ill afford to spend time with a vocation that costs money to pursue but is unlikely to generate cash flow.
Maybe that sounds mercenary and not at all creative but we do have to face the practicalities of the world we live in.
Still working on that one!
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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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2025.05.11 AS-TXT-329/299