(2021 The 100 Day Project 3/100)

Number 36 of 60 on “the list” is to participate in The 100 Day Project this year.  This purpose of the project is simple: choose something that nourishes your creativity, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online.  What you do and how you do whatever it is that you choose to do is up to you.  Beyond the intention to create something each day for 100 days, there are no rules.

I participated in this project in 2019.  From April 3rd to July 10th, I wrote a haiku every day.  Doing so was not a huge step as I had been writing haiku in my journal several days a week already.  The big difference was that because I needed the accountability, I also committed to sharing my writing online with others who had also committed to the 100 Day Project..  Some days the haiku were easy to write.  Other days, not so much.  The point was that with discipline and practice comes growth as a creative…and that is what I wanted and needed.  The irony here is that I have taken and posted a daily photo every single day since January 1, 2013.  For some reason that I don’t understand, the 100 Day Project felt like it was different.  Perhaps having that daily photo habit prepared me to branch out of my creative comfort zone and commit to another project for a finite period of time.

I felt a sense of accomplishment after completing the haiku project.  Using that success as catalyst, it took me almost a year, but I went back and did some editing on the haiku and then found a photo that I had taken that I thought was an accurate visual representation of each of the one hundred haiku and created a book.  Of the many creative things that I have done over the years, having that book printed brings me a feeling of true happiness and joy.

With all that was, and wasn’t, going on in 2020, I didn’t feel that I could commit to the 100 Day Project.  Potentially, it could have been the best thing for me to do, but when the start date rolled around last April, I had just started teaching six different classes virtually and I didn’t have it in me to make a commitment to anything more.  Work was taking every ounce of brain power and creative energy that I had to give.

And here we are in 2021.  Pandemic restrictions are keeping us from going and doing much and I’m not teaching.  My days are mine to do with what I wish.  What an awesome feeling!  Bring on the 2021 100 Day Project!

Over the last year, I have been dabbling with different kinds of art – a little sketching and watercolor and a little mixed media.  I don’t have a dedicated art studio space so to work on any kind of project requiring supplies means that I have to drag the stuff out, do my thing in one sitting, and then put it all away.  Admittedly, that process has been a deterrent on many occasions.  We are actually hoping to build an addition on to our house this year that will be a playroom for me.  (That’s #34/60 on the list.). It will have art studio space and a place to build and house my Lego collection.  Unt il then, I have to work with the space constraints that we have…meaning that in the winter months, art happens at the kitchen bar.

I decided that one way to build some art skills was to learn to use Procreate, a digital drawing app for the iPad.  This way, I can work on developing some basic drawing and art skills and not have to worry about where to make my mess with real paint.  I’m not sure that digital art is “my thing.”  I like the feel of real paper, holding different pens and pencils and markers in my hand, and finishing a project with a sample color palette allover my hands or clothes or both.  For me, these experiences are evidence of being “all in” with the process.  Drawing with Procreate on the iPad requires only an iPad, the Procreate app, and an Apple Pencil…and the creative process can happen literally anywhere.  It is mess-free!

This year, The 100 Day Project started much earlier, on January 31st.  So, for 100 days, through May 10, I will draw something with Procreate each day.  I have no systematic approach for these hundred days other than to create something and hopefully learn some skills along the way.

This is Day 1/100.  I followed a tutorial that introduced a few features of Procreate.

 

Then I discovered that a friend is part of a group of artists that is sponsoring a February creative challenge called Feathruary.  It encourages us to create all month around a theme of birds, using any or many different art mediums.  I like to support my friends, so I decided to jump onboard…using the daily bird prompts, but working exclusively in Procreate.  A couple problems here…I know very little about either birds or Procreate.  As I told my friend, learning happens when we fly outside of our comfort zone.  We are now nine days into February, and I have drawn nine images of birds using Procreate.  I have nineteen days left to get better at drawing birds and ninety more days to figure out how to use Procreate. 🙂

As adults, we are afraid to be beginners at anything, afraid to admit that we have no clue how to do something, or afraid that we may have to work too hard to learn a new skill and still may not be good at it.  Or, worse yet, we may have to face failure.  The adult psyche doesn’t like that.  We have been taught that our worth as a human being is synonymous with our level of success.  How sad is this?!  And how sad is it that many adults may never discover hidden talents or experience the joy of learning something new because of a paralysis brought on by potential failure.  How might things be different if we thought about what we might gain from engaging in the process rather than focusing on the product?  For many things, especially in the creative realm, the final outcome is not necessarily the best measure of success.

I am certain that drawing birds is not my gift.  None of my efforts from the month’s Feathruary challenge will make their way to a gallery.  They likely won’t even make it into a self-published collection like my haiku.  That’s perfectly OK.  I’m trying new things.  The process is challenging my thinking, my seeing, and my learning.  Many of my efforts look like they were drawn by a 6-year-old.  I’m good with that.  Because with those childlike drawings comes the same childlike sense of wonder and possibility that asix-year-old child has.  

(2021 The 100 Day Project 9/100)

This brings to mind the poem…

Now We Are Six

By  A. A. Milne.

 

When I was One,

I had just begun.

When I was Two,

I was nearly new.

When I was Three

I was hardly me.

When I was Four,

I was not much more.

When I was Five,

I was just alive.

But now I am Six,

I’m as clever as clever,

So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.

So here I am, still six after nearly fifty-four years!

Who needs that zero anyway?!