So, I am doing The 100-Day Project Challenge again; my second attempt at this creativity "habit building" exercise. You can read more at the above link; or just choose "a creative thing" to pursue for 100 consecutive days... and then use #the100dayproject as one of your first three tags so others on Hive and other social media can find you!
Today is a combination post for Days 19 & 20.
Second stone started yesterday, and completed today.
The Road to Hell...
Whenever I start in on some challenge, I have lots of good intentions. I suppose we all do, when we undertake such things. And then reality sets in.
As was the case when I tried this challenge in 2024, the biggest part of ”reality” that I face is that I resolve to try these things but their success is predicated on my having the necessary time to do them.
Today, I really realized how the thing that bogs me down is not motivation, or willingness to do what needs to be done, it is the fact that once everything else that must be done has been done I end up with maybe 10 minutes left over to do something that takes a good two to three hours.
I don't have two to three hours to give. Sometimes I try to make it work by staying up really late but who is going to create well at the end of the day when they're already exhausted?
Smaller stone, finished yesterday
Today's Creative Endeavor:
In spite of the preceding, I actually did manage to get some work done.
Yesterday, I painted a smaller stone (pictured above) that went quite well and will become part of the collection of stones that my wife keeps to give to her clients.
Then I got started on a second stone before I ran out of energy and decided to call it quits for the day.
Painting completed, in spite of the stone being a bit rough
I managed to get that stone finished this morning and was not unhappy with the results even though the stone — as often is the case in the winter when I don't get to go to the beach very often — was a little rougher, surface wise, than I normally like to work with.
Even so, I think it turned out quite well (above, and top of page).
Maybe because it's winter and it is entirely possible that I'm afflicted a little bit with Seasonal Affective Disorder, I decided to paint another stone this afternoon using rather bright colors. This is a color set i have not actually used together before but i think it turned out pretty well.
Rather bright — even garish — colors I don't generally use
Minding the Store(s):
I didn't even look at the stores today, other than to look at the visitor stats, as outlined below.
Social Media Musings:
Even though I have not done very well on the social media part of this challenge one thing I've noticed is that the previously mentioned traffic counts on the Etsy shop continue to be up considerably.
I just checked the latest stats as of about an hour ago and visitors are still running about 40-50% ahead of last year.
This tells me that something at least is working, although none of these visits have translated into sales as of yet.
A brighter design. Sorry the photo is a bit blurry... it was dark
Final Thoughts for Today:
These kinds of creative challenges are definitely more difficult when you're operating with a tight schedule.
I think my big lesson here is not so much whether I have the creative determination or the persistence to keep something like this going, but to remember that undertaking a challenge requires time and when you don't have time it becomes very difficult — laborious, even — to keep up with the challenge.
Where's my intent is definitely to set up better habits, I'm finding that I don't really have room in my life for these habits! And that could be an indication that this artwork I'm doing will never be anything more than something I dabble in on the side.
Unless, of course, we all of a sudden win the lottery! The only problem with that, of course, is that then we'd have to start buying lottery tickets…
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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!
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