2025 - The Big Shift

Despite the cosy scene above, 2025 was a difficult year for me due to life simply happening and a big shift in my art I had to come to terms with.

As I found out in December in a suggested Instagram post, 2025 was the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac – a time of shedding, transformation and evolution – in combination with the Year 9 in numerology which marks the end of a cycle and endings in general.

So, positively said: it was a powerful year for growth.

When I read this post, everything that had happened that year made perfect sense. It didn’t make me feel better nor made it things easier but at least it helped me to understand why I had to deal with old things yet again healing-wise and why the shift in my art I tried to resist was so relentless that I had to give in.

So, let me tell you about this shift.

Something that started in 2024 as a “I really like doing this from time to time so I can make some nice cards and presents” kind of thing, slowly took over more and more of my creative time in 2025: vintage style crafting and journal making.

I did still paint a bit, but inspiration for paintings came less and less. Instead, I made journals and ephemera as gifts, boxes and ephemera holders and covers for crafting projects I’m currently working on.

Of course I needed more supplies for this, preferably vintage supplies such as the old/vintage paper, books, magazines, family photos from the early 1900s, taylor supplies from my grandfather and linen I found in my dad’s house that my sister and I had started to clear out in January. Being 96 at that time, my dad couldn’t live alone anymore, so he moved to a nursery home (he is enjoying living there a lot!). Apart from the tedious work in the house, I was in crafter’s paradise and since it’s remotely possible, I inherited the hoarder gene from my dad, I probably have more stuff than I can ever use.

Being in the house where I grew up week after week however triggered a lot of the old things having to do with my complex childhood trauma. So, I had to deal with them and let them go for the umpteenth time, this time however for good. You know, 9 & snake, just saying…

Enjoying crafting so much and learning new crafty things along the way was a weird experience though, as it felt right and wrong at the same time. Right, because I loved crafting as a kid and wrong, because of “Sabine loves to paint”. Painting is how I started out in 2022. It’s what I felt and believed to be MY THING. Hence, it’s the name of my website domain and my social media. I also say it on my home page right away. So, how could I suddenly be craving to craft and even prefer it over painting most of the days? I am a painter, or am I?

This may sound silly to you, but I felt rather guilty about loving to craft. An inner struggle began and it took quite a lot of work until I finally gave myself permission to follow my heart/inner little girl and craft whenever I feel like it; regardless of what “Sabine loves to paint” represents. Just because of what I’ve believed in for three years doesn’t mean it’s carved in stone! Remember: Change is the only constant in life.

That done, painting quietly found a way back into my life in the form of art journaling.

I’ve been following artist Laly Mille for quite a while now and taken some of her classes, which are – amongst other subjects – on art journaling. However, I’ve been using what I learned in her classes for painting in general, not for art journalling.

It was only in September that art journaling became a thing. It helped and still helps me to let go of some things just like painting has since I started it. This made me realise I've been art journaling ever since I've picked up a brush, because most of my paintings are like art journal entries; just not in a specifically designated one like the one I made especially for this.

And of course, painting is sometimes part of the process of crafting. I just haven’t considered it “real” painting so far as there is no finished painting at the end. To give you an example: The latest thing I've tried and had a lot of fun with is painting on fabric with watercolours which is something I saw on “Annelis Journaling” Youtube channel and while doing that somehow the word "play" in comination with "20262 popped into my head. Not that I was actively looking for a "word of the year", but I guess that's why it came to me.

So, "play" will be my word of the year 2026 or rather for the time being to remind me to just play when creating art and to stress less about things like what kind of artist I am or if "Sabine loves to paint" is still approppriate. It will replace the French word "Liberté" that's been with me since August 2023, because apparently I have reached a point in my art journey where striving for “Liberté” is no longer necessary and I should finally consider myself free enough to play...

So, as difficult and painful as it’s been, I say good-bye to 2025 in deep gratitude and I’m looking forward to what 2026 will bring, whatever this might be.

Hopefully I will finish the following craft projects I’m currently working on:

- an album for the family photos from the early 1900s

- an album for found photos of women from the early 1900s inspired by the old family photos

- an inspiration book, because I don’t have enough space to set up a vision board

- a sort of vintage journal

And maybe, I will even paint a bit...