Greetings to you all from the shores of Loch Lomond at the pretty village of Luss. How are you enjoying New Year 2018 so far?
And welcome to my new artist blog Stars & Stems. I’m Emerald and you can read my artist profile here. Plus a little bit what I’m aiming for with this blog.
So here we are again at the top of the year. Have you made any big plans for the year to come? And is January 1st such a great time to start something new anyway? There’s certainly no religious significance to the date (if you’re that way inclined). Neither does stand in for a particular Pagan marker such as Spring Equinox or Beltane.
Coming to such a beautiful but chilly spot was a great way to clear my thoughts about 2018. I’m not writing about our trip to Luss today though. This first post is about renewal and my thoughts about starting an artist blog. Or should I say, relaunching it.
NEW YEAR 2018: GETTING BACK TO HEALTH
It’s been a quiet few days for me since that drowsy Christmas to New Year period. I had a small operation to repair my damaged voice – and I’ve hardly said a word since! My vocal chords became damaged after I lost my voice after a very bad cold last February (and didn’t bother seeing a doctor!). I didn’t have the opportunity to rest it, or to be more truthful, didn’t rest it. After that I had a full-time teaching job during the summer which didn’t help. Neither did three months of speech therapy, hence the surgery. And although I still have to find out the results of a biopsy, I’m confident that I’m on the mend and my voice will be back.
So, the health issues of last year and teaching job thankfully behind me, it’s time for me to regain my blogging voice too.
NEW YEAR 2018: BACK TO BLOGGING
I’ve been blogging for ten years on and off. My first one was in 2006 when I lived in Japan, followed by an artist one in 2011. Although they were both still getting hits I took them both down. Partly because I’d like to harvest some old stories with a wiser angle on my experiences. And also because back then my idea of writing a blog entry was simply to write and press publish. I had no idea about things such as SEO, sharing posts, tagging photographs etc.
Last year I started to overhaul my artist website and I decided that adding an artist blog made sense. After all, such a blog allows me to:
- Speak about my art and other interests, such as my time in Japan, yoga, fashion and music.
- Market my art to a wider audience.
- Write about inspiring places to sketch.
- Discuss techniques.
- Talk about exhibitions past, present and future.
- Review my favourite art products as well as some new ones.
- Keep friends up to date with our “gallivanting” in and around Scotland. Pals are convinced that my other half are always out and about armed with our sketchbooks, which is quite true. Why not write up where we’ve been and what we’ve sketched?
Meanwhile, what plans do I have for my art itself in 2018? That’ll be the subject of my next post.
Thank you for tuning in to the first episode of Stars & Stems. Look out for a longer post on our visit to Luss.
What plans do you have for New Year 2018? Let me know in the comment section below.
