Despite the list of things I did in October, it was truly a month of rest and refueling as an artist. Most of the things I checked off my to do list were things I had worked on for a long time and finally enjoyed the relief of completing them this month.
The first long project to check off was a mural for my church community, Awaken West Seventh. This congregation does an incredible job of encouraging and supporting its artists to be involved with and seen by the church. The leadership team reached out to a few of us visual artists earlier this year to ask if we would be interested in creating a display to highlight the different missions organizations our church supports. Fast forward through a busy summer and hectic fall, myself and fellow artist, Vanessa Lucius, finally finished planning and creating the mural and information display.
Check it out through this instagram reel and read the significance of it in the caption below.
It was definitely a harder project than I initially thought, but I'm so glad I did it and it's been so encouraging to hear people respond to it in our church.
In the middle of October, I got the privilege of joining my mom at her annual scrapbooking retreat. Her and her friends rent out conference rooms at the same hotel each year in the spring and fall to get together and talk, and maybe do some scrapbooking too. I was invited this year but don't currently have a scrapbook project, so I asked if I could work on my art and business to do list.
They said sure! So I hung out and got a lot of good work done. Including a few hand painted ornaments on little wood cuts that I had been wanting to do forever. (pictured below)
After a weekend of refreshing painting, and a dip in the hotel hot tub, I had a few projects to finally launch. Hopefully this isn't the first time you're hearing about this, but I created my first ever Watercolor Workbook, and a new set of greeting cards!
I opened a pre-order for my workbook and it was so exciting to see all the people excited to learn to paint with this low pressure and fun activity. I'll be selling the extras very soon once I mail out all the pre-orders. I printed my greeting cards, not only to sell directly to my own customers, but to try my hand at wholesaling (where I sell my products to stores who then sell them to their own customers). Check out what I have available for wholesale on Faire.
And guess what, October brought my first wholesale order! From none other than one of my favorite places to shop since I was a child, The General Store of Minnetonka! You can now purchase three of my sticker designs from their shelves while you shop the rest of their endless giftable items and grab a bite from their amazing cafe.
Because being an artist involves both give and take, it came time for an event I had the honor of helping plan alongside other artists, once again, from my creative church community. This time, we were planning a mindful retreat entitled, The Artist's Disposition. We listened to a lecture on the psychology of a sensitive person by Melody Olson, took part in yoga, basked in nature, created a collaborative weaving, toured our local art museum, learned about feelings in music from Jenny Klukken, and enjoyed a live performance by a local talented duo, the OK Factor.
These lovely ladies created a magical weekend at Art House North and I felt so inspired and refreshed afterwards. If you are not plugged into a local creative community, it's probably my number one recommendation to keep yourself joyful and sane as an artist.
The rest of October was a blur of busy days at my day job and full evenings with little time for art making. One thing I didn't do on purpose was take part in any art fairs. It was great to have my weekends for the relaxing things I mentioned above instead. I have a lot of plans for the next few months and some already in the works that I can't wait to tell you about. For now, I want to say thank you for reading this far and supporting me in my creative endeavors. If you are looking for holidays gifts this year, I've got lots of ideas for you ;) just check out my shop to look for yourself.
Stay Creative!
-Alyssa
