Happy Holidays! And Going Into the New Year
We're relaxing for the holidays but there's so much more to come!
Before I get into the bulk of this post, I wanted to share Anartist emmagineering’s sketchbook artwork from December 15th’s episode of Anartist Open Mic Night. Her artwork is beautiful and stunning and I’m proud to have her in The Anartist Collective. Her style is creative, her technique is unique and she has an interesting use of the mediums she uses. You can see more of her work on emmagineerings’s Instagram. If you missed Open Mic Night with emmagineering and James from Plunder World trading cards you can find the full episode on our YouTube and Rumble channels as well as The Anartist Collective on X. At the end of the episode James had us pick from a stack of card packs and the one he opened he gave away to a contest winner so congratulations to Jacob Griesmer! Jacob is a wealth of information and I was glad to see his name in the announcement of the winner. I’m still finding it amusing that of all the unopened card packs I could have picked it, it was the one where the drone card was the first to be pulled out. If you haven’t checked out Plunder World trading cards you should definitely go to PlunderWorld.com. The cards are beautifully designed and packed full of information. I really can’t wait to work with James in the future! And if you missed our December 22nd show, we had a Dogma watch along and chat afterwards. Dogma has been one of my favorite movies since it was released 25 years ago. This Sunday for New Year’s we’ll be having another watch along of the movie Four Rooms and I’ll open the lines for anyone who wants to jump in and chat afterwards! We’ll be back to guests in the new year but I do plan on continuing the watch alongs, they just might end up their own thing on their own night so keep following for updates!
I want to wish everyone out there a happy holidays! I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I started The Anartist Collective! I have to thank everyone for the support and donations I’ve received throughout 2024. It means more to me than you will ever know! I don’t think I have felt as much love and support as I have with The Anartist Collective. All of the support and encouragement I have received touches me deeply and I love every one of you. I plan on carrying that energy into 2025 and spread that among Anartists current and future. There is so much talent and imagination out there and I want to spread it to everyone! Coming in 2025 we’ll be starting some new projects. I also want to extend the invitation for Anartist virtual art tours in whatever environment you have your art, be it a gallery or your own home studio. You don’t have to be a member, I’d like to see everyone’s work and show others! I would also like to invite people who create be it art, music, or craftsmanship, to livestream their creative process on our channels. I think the creative process is just as, if not moreso, important than the end product and I would like to share that process with anyone who would like to see it. If you’re interested you can get in contact with me here or email me at shelly@anartistcollective.com. And if you’re a performer, writer or other creative and would like to come on Anartist Open Mic Night and would like to share what you do get in touch! My goal is to make The Anartist Collective as open and supportive an environment possible so people feel comfortable to share what they do and explore new things so don’t be shy! And if you feel awkward that’s totally fine. I’m awkward as hell and I don’t think that will ever change. We can all be awkward together.
Some other plans we have going into 2025 is starting a merch store for The Anartist Collective to raise funds for operations and expanding to new areas. I want people to get something in return for offering support to The Anartist Collective. Right now we have the Anartist Print of the Month, an art print from a different Anartist each month. You can sign up at either The Anartist Collective on Ko-fi or on our Patreon. You also still have a few days to sign up and get our last print of the month of 2024! It’s a painting done by myself, Shelly Olmstead. I wanted to go into 2025 with a message of love and hope so I chose one of my channeled paintings. I’m also hoping I can raise enough funds to get a larger-format ink tank printer so I can start making custom printed products for the collective shops but I’ll also be working with our co-founder Angela Anderson to get it started until I do. She currently prints the Anartist print of the month and she does a wonderful job. I’ve also been working on a shop with Ryan Graham of Big Frog Beaverton so hopefully we’ll be able to finalize some things after the holidays. There’s a lot more coming so subscribe for updates and follow all our social media that can be found on our Linktree. And of course don’t forget to check out all the artists at anartistcollective.com! I’ve been taking a break from adding new artists to the website and just maintaining through the holidays, it’s chaotic for everyone and I’m not about to expect people to have the time to converse and plan a page with me as easy of a process I try to make it for the other person. Everyone should be focusing on spending time with their loved ones and if not, then just enjoying some down time for themselves. People will need the rest going into 2025, I have a feeling things will become even more chaotic but lets harness that force for ourselves in a creative direction!
I hope you have a wonderful week whatever you do or don’t celebrate. And remember, whatever you do, whatever you say, try to do so out of love as it’s something that’s sorely missing in this world. As we leave the darkest part of the year and look forward to the return of the sun, we should take that creative energy towards building beautiful, new things. It is the reason for the season after all.