Working on more Art and Creativity for Spring and Summer

I don't so often talk about the more "creative" things I do, so I thought I'd take a slight change of pace here.

As some of you may have gleaned from reading these pages, both my wife and I are involved in creative and artistic endeavors, including the fact that we have a small "alternative" art gallery, here in our town.

I was never much of an artist...

Growing up, I never thought of myself as much of an artist... an idea that was pretty strongly supported by my awful experiences in art class as a kid and youngster.

If someone asked me to draw a horse, or a flower, or a person... all I was capable of was basically drawing a "blob." That remains true, to this day.

But, in spite of my D-minus grades in art class, I was always fascinated by geometric patterns and patterns found in nature. One of my favorite toys growing up was the Spirograph-- anyone remember those? I doodled and squiggled and did quite well, as long as it didn't have to "look like something."

My creative outlet today-- which I call "Alchemy Stones"-- is basically the eventual development of discovering that I was creative, in some sense. It just wasn't "fine art," as most people think of it.

Painting Mandalas and Sacred Geometry... on Stone

I have been drawing and painting intricate geometric patterns on paper since my teens; I started painting on stones about ten years ago. Mrs. Denmarkguy and I both love beach combing and have a house full of rocks... so it seemed like a natural "fit."

Painting mandalas on beach stones is both a creative outlet, as well as a meditation for me. 

The stone pictured here is one of my better recent efforts, and measures about 3" (7.5cm) across... so it's fairly intense and tiny detail work. Thankfully, I have good eyesight!

A piece like this one takes about 2-3 hours to paint. After the ceramic paint cures for 4-5 days, it gets a clear coat of lacquer to protect the design-- the stones are meant to be touched and handled.

Online Sales... and Cryptocurrencies... a New Market

As of late, I have been seeing more and more art coming through on my Steemit feed... and with @steemshop starting up and PeerHub already out there, I have been considering offering some of these for sale through Steemit, as well. Aside from our gallery, I also have them in shops on eBay, Etsy and Amazon... but I'm interested in exploring and supporting an actual economy based on cryptocurrency... aka Steem. 

So that's one of the many things in the "future plans" file. I like supporting the idea that there is an economic reason for Steem, the currency.

I am also considering setting up a separate Steemit account purely for creative stuff... since most of what I write here (philosophical psychobabble!) has little to do with art,

For now, I am just spending a lot more time painting (and less time posting here, sadly...), in preparation for having a good stock on hand for the summer "tourist season" here.

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise specified. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)