Submit Now to Become the Art Star of January!

As the new year begins, there is a moment that feels almost invisible if you’re not paying attention. The noise of December fades, the celebrations settle, and what remains is a quiet openness. January doesn’t demand anything from you right away. Instead, it offers space. Space to breathe, to reflect, and to gently take stock of what the past year has left behind.

For artists, this moment often feels heavier than expected.

Art is never just about output. It is intertwined with life, emotion, memory, and change. As the year turns, many artists find themselves revisiting not just what they created, but how they created it. The pauses. The interruptions. The doubts. The small victories that no one else saw. The pieces that stayed unfinished. The ideas that arrived at the wrong time. The work that mattered deeply, even if it never left the studio.

You might be feeling hopeful right now. Or unsure. Or quietly determined. You might be tired. You might be ready. Or you might be somewhere in between, holding that familiar internal question: What now?

At Arts to Hearts Project, we’ve spent years listening to artists at exactly this point. Not at the height of certainty, but at the beginning of something new. Arts to Hearts was created with the understanding that art is a long, human process one shaped by time, care, vulnerability, and courage. Since the beginning, our aim has been simple: to create meaningful opportunities where artists feel genuinely seen, heard, and respected.

As the year opens, submissions are now open for January’s Art Star of the Month. This invitation is not about urgency for the sake of it. It’s about recognising a moment that holds quiet potential, a chance to begin the year by trusting your work enough to let it be seen.

Why January Is a Powerful Time to Share Your Work

January carries a very different energy from December. Where December asks us to reflect, to close, to celebrate what has passed, January asks something softer. It asks us to begin again, without certainty. To move forward while still holding questions. To take steps without fully knowing where they will lead.

For artists, this can feel uncomfortable. We are often taught to wait, until the work feels finished enough, strong enough, cohesive enough. To wait until confidence catches up with instinct. But January reminds us that beginnings are rarely neat. They are tentative. Fragile. Honest.

Submitting your work in January is not about presenting a conclusion. It is about offering a glimpse into your practice as it exists now. It’s about allowing your work to reflect where you are, not where you think you should be. That honesty is often what resonates most deeply.

At Arts to Hearts, we are not searching for perfection. We are drawn to sincerity. To work that carries thought, care, and lived experience. Some Art Stars create boldly, using colour, movement, and scale to communicate emotion. Others work quietly, with subtle gestures that reward close attention. Some practices are rooted in tradition, others are experimental, conceptual, or still evolving. There is no single kind of artist we choose. There never has been.

January is powerful precisely because it allows work to exist without the pressure of performance. It allows artists to say, this is where I am right now — and that is enough.

How Arts to Hearts Has Grown With Artists Over the Years

Arts to Hearts did not begin as a large platform. It began with a simple intention: to create space for artists whose work deserved thoughtful attention. Over the years, that intention has guided every opportunity we’ve created.

Art Star of the Month was never designed as a competition. It was designed as a pause. A moment where an artist could step into the light without being rushed, simplified, or reduced to a headline. We wanted to create a space where artists could speak in their own voice, where their work could be met with curiosity rather than judgment.

As the platform grew, so did the community. Artists from different countries, disciplines, and stages of practice began to share their work. What connected them was not a shared aesthetic, but a shared willingness to show up honestly.

Many artists tell us that being featured came at a turning point. Some were questioning their practice. Some were returning to art after a long break. Some were quietly building bodies of work without knowing if anyone would ever see them. Being recognised did not suddenly solve everything but it often changed how artists saw themselves. That shift matters.

January continues this tradition. It offers artists a place to step forward without having to prove anything only to be present.

Artists Celebrated Previously

Over the years, Arts to Hearts has had the honour of celebrating artists from across the globe, working in painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, digital media, mixed media, and beyond. Some were emerging artists sharing their work publicly for the first time. Others were established practitioners seeking a more reflective, human-centred platform for their work.

What many of these artists share is not a single aesthetic or career path, but a willingness to take a step forward even when certainty was missing. For some, being an Art Star led to new exhibitions, collaborations, or collectors discovering their work. For others, it simply offered something equally valuable: confidence. A sense that their work mattered. That their voice had a place.

These artists did not submit because they had everything figured out. They submitted because they believed, even quietly, that their work deserved to be seen. January continues this lineage, a new chapter in an ongoing story of artists who choose to trust their instincts.

The Question Beneath the Question: “Why Should I Submit?”

If you’re honest, the hesitation isn’t usually about the form. It’s about exposure. About vulnerability. About the possibility of being seen.

Submitting your work is an act of trust. Trust in your instincts. Trust that your work carries something worth sharing. Trust that even if the outcome is uncertain, the act itself matters.

Many artists tell themselves they’ll submit later, when the work feels stronger, when confidence arrives, when circumstances improve. But confidence often follows action, not the other way around. Sharing your work is not the end of your growth, it’s part of it.

Ask yourself:

• What would it mean to begin this year by choosing courage over hesitation?
• What would it feel like to let your work exist beyond your private space?
• If someone encounters your work, what might they recognise in it?

January doesn’t promise answers. It offers possibility.

What It Truly Means to Be January’s Art Star

Being selected as an Art Star of the Month is not about being elevated above others. It is about being recognised as someone whose work deserves time, attention, and care.

If selected, your work becomes part of the Arts to Hearts Project archive through a permanent feature on our website. It will be encountered by curators, collectors, and art lovers from around the world — not fleetingly, but thoughtfully.

Your work will be shared across our global Instagram community of over 100k creatives, presented with intention rather than speed. You will also take part in a personal interview — a reflective conversation about your practice, influences, and journey. Many artists describe this as a rare moment to articulate their work without pressure.

Your feature will also appear in our global newsletter, reaching readers who are genuinely interested in following artists over time, not just consuming images.

These moments often resonate long after the month ends.

How to Submit

We’ve kept the process simple so you can focus on what matters:

• Your name, email, and a professional link (website or Instagram).
• A short artist bio or statement that reflects your practice.
• A professional portrait that represents you authentically.
• Up to three artworks, each with its title, medium, size, year, and a short reflection.

No unnecessary steps. No pressure to overshare. Just a clear invitation to let your work speak.

Submission Fee

Optional Add-On: $27 for a custom virtual studio visit interview (only charged if selected)

Standard Submission: $18 (non-refundable)

Begin the Year with Courage and Share Your Art

The Art Star of the Month program has never been about a single feature. From the very beginning, it has been about creating space—space for artists to be seen with care, to be heard without being rushed, and to be celebrated for the stories they carry through their work. We believe art matters because it connects us. It reflects our lives, holds our questions, and offers something real in a world that often moves too fast. And for those connections to happen, your work has to be allowed into the world.

The beginning of a new year asks something quietly powerful of you. It asks you to decide what you will no longer postpone. It’s easy to tell yourself, “I’ll share my work later. When I feel more confident. When things feel clearer.” But there is no perfect moment waiting ahead. There is only this one, this open, honest beginning where intention still feels possible. January is not about having everything figured out; it’s about choosing to begin anyway.

This could be the month you step forward without certainty. The month you allow your work to speak beyond your private space. The month your art reaches someone who didn’t know they were waiting for it. The start of the year when you choose not to disappear into hesitation, but to trust that what you’ve been making deserves to be seen.

So we ask you, at the very beginning of this year: what part of your story are you ready to carry forward? What work is asking to move with you into the months ahead?