On and off, I have talked about how the business of (my) art has been pretty bad over the past couple of years, due to the various COVID-19 restrictions.
That said, there's nothing quite like sitting down and doing your taxes to bring you face to face with exactly how bad something was!
And The Results Are In: In the calendar year 2021, the business end of Alchemy Stones made a staggering $523.00!
Which is pretty much the least I have made since I first declared this something other than a hobby, back in 2013.
The Psychology of Doing Well
One of the things I find most challenging — notwithstanding that I do love the creative aspects of what I'm doing — is simply remaining enthusiastic (from a mental health perspective) about something that perpetually seems to be going backwards.
Indeed, these have been extraordinary years and yes, everybody has had difficulties. But that doesn't make it easier to deal with.
I suppose the easy way out would be to simply declare that I relinquish any and all intention of being paid for what I'm doing, but if I were to do such a thing I would also have to relinquish any time I give to this, because I needed to dedicate that time to income producing activities, not to sitting around doodling on rocks.
And that would essentially move the entire Alchemy Stones project from being something I do on a regular basis, to something I might do for an hour every other weekend.
Ah, the joys (not!) of being poor!
I wish I could authentically say that finishing last year's bookkeeping and taxes had some kind of high point or bright spot that I could focus on, but it really didn't.
That said, I still plan to go forward. However, I am going to be changing some of the things I am doing.
Given the proliferation of community rock painting groups, the whole idea of "painting on rocks" was pretty much moved from "esoteric cool art" into the domain of ”free public art,” so I think I'm going to focus more on finding small and light stones that I can paint and turn into jewelry. Because those rock painting groups are very unlikely to have people who are set up with stone drilling rigs and things like that that require extra work.
Aside from that? I don't know... yet!
Thanks for stopping by! Do you leave me a comment if you feel so inspired — interaction and engagement are always welcome!
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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Thank you for supporting independent art!
2022.02.22 AS-TXT-087/053