Creative Pebbling: Touchstones to Alternative Value

Pebbling. Watercolor on paper, 2026.

Lately, amidst my own meandering summer travels, I’ve been cultivating quite the collection of visual gems. You know, those novelty snapshots you capture in transit, like out-of-place sculptures, bits of detail, bobs of color, or a cool snail shell. Ten years ago, I would have posted photos like these on Instagram with a brief caption or no caption at all. Each little gem spoke for itself or was left open for individual interpretation.

In my head, I’ve always thought of sharing these visuals as creative pebbling. It was a way to connect across the virtual space and share a piece of your world with someone else, whether beautiful or bizarre. It wasn’t about building a brand, it was about sparking an idea, sharing a laugh, or just feeling connected. It felt wonderfully human, which is an anomaly these days.

Food for thought.

The internet used to be a fantastic place for this kind of exchange, that is until bots, algorithms, and AI hit the scene. Dead internet theory projects that bots make up over half of internet traffic. My own analytics support this theory. Personally, I think the lack of a human touch in the digital landscape is a reflection of the broader, modern mindset that if it’s not essential, it’s not valuable. And on the internet, “essential” means monetizable. God forbid you take up any space on the boundless internet unless you’re optimizing it to grab attention, amass a following, and sell things.

Hattie’s Hat. Seattle, WA. Proof that people want the funky and eclectic to endure.

As a content creator myself, I do understand the utility of social media for promotion. I’m not saying that selling things or making money is bad. What I am saying is that the internet has gone the way of the banana: stripped of all variety and engineered to be homogenous. What started as a tool for collective meaning-making and weird cat memes has become a completely corporatized alternate reality. It’s unilaterally stomping out the human magic that once was.

So, how do we keep the magic alive when our lights are being snuffed out by bushels of bots? Glad you asked. When it comes to the tangled world wide web, I don’t know. What I do know is that these pebbles are tiny, priceless human artifacts of presence, experience, and meaning-making that I’d like to keep alive—or at this point resurrect. 

Now, if you’re new to the idea of creative pebbling, no worries. It’s easy. All you have to do is keep your eyes open to the actual world around you, notice what draws you in, and take a quick capture. Note the keyword quick. Without that, you’re just the next food paparazzi taking photos of the same plate of spaghetti from all angles until it goes cold. No, you must be decisive. Long enough to be thoughtful, but brief enough to be on your way.

ONA. Olga Ziemska, 2023. Ona is the Polish word for she, and SHE takes in everything. Be like Ona.

And don’t look at the photos right away. Wait until the end of the day. If you find a couple of shots you like, go ahead and play with editing if you want. The artist in me loves that bit, but it’s not necessary. Over time you will likely start to see patterns in what you’re drawn to. For me, it’s often unique textures, jewel-toned colors, and all things surreal. But really, I’ll take anything that catches my eye or means something to me.

So you’ve done the creative part of noticing, capturing, and possibly enhancing the image to tease out the nuances of the moment. Now what? How do you share it and with whom? 

As I said in the beginning, I used to turn to popular social media platforms like Instagram for this, but that was when my connections and I actually saw each other’s posts, and they weren’t buried under countless ads and influencer content. I even tried to post these kinds of things on TikTok occasionally. No surprise, TikTok revolves around video content so, again, very few people were shown my photo posts. In my experience, Bluesky is the current app most likely to garner actual human interaction, but even then it’s still pretty cluttered. 

Recently, I’ve been treating those apps more like bulletin boards and just posting invitations to fresh tutorials on YouTube, new art series or product releases, and occasional art prompts. It takes the performance pressure off, and I really appreciate the few people who do tune in or engage.

So with social media a dead end for this specific type of connection-oriented sharing, how do we leave our trail of touchstones? Here are some suggestions to ditch the corporate-driven confines and start sharing snippets of life on your own terms:

Send direct communication. By this I mean emailing or texting your gems. Email garden harvest photos to your parents to celebrate a shared passion. Text a Fourth of July firework capture to your friends to bridge the geographical distance. Drop a random photo in a group chat with no explanation just to get people talking. The possibilities are endless.

Engage with the community at large. Print off an occasional snapshot and hide it in a library book or at the bus stop or in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. Leave some unassuming person an invaluable bit of intrigue on an odd Tuesday.

Send snail mail. Yes, people do still send letters (though I am notoriously terrible at this method). Think of how cool it would be to randomly receive something in your mailbox that isn’t a bill, an ad, or something you ordered yourself. Older generations are much better at this, and I love them for it. I have been the delighted recipient of physical cards, photos, and photocopied recipes many times. I would really like to return the favor.

Start a blog. Make the internet weird again (in a good way). Don’t let blogging become a lost art. It’s an underrated outlet for reflection and letting your freak flag fly! Share musings and snapshots of life through your eyes—share your world. I would love to see it!

Globe spotted at Boys & Girls Club of America. If you think about it, second-hand items are all just casual bits of legacy passed along between total strangers. Neat.

The reality is that money has been the primary currency for a long, long time. Let’s be real, it’s straightforward and convenient. However, we’re currently speed running toward a dystopian reality where money is the only currency and measure of value, and I refuse to live with that. Creative pebbling is my tiny revolution. Our lives were never meant to be commodified; they were meant to be lived, shared, and turned into stories—not for profit but for human legacy. Life is made to have meaning, but you need to cultivate it. You create the value one touchstone at a time.

What was the last beautiful or bizarre thing that caught your eye? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!