Grow 365 – Do Something Creative Every Day

Grow from Chicago "through California en route to London" is doing a project called Grow 365 – Do Something Creative Every Day...




Why did you decide to do this project? it was kind of on a whim, actually. a whole bunch of threads that had been laying dormant in my mind finally intersected on new year's eve, when i didn't really want to go to the party (which of course turned out to be lovely.)

but while i was being cranky and pondering what i wanted the new year to look like, a flash of inspiration flared in my brain, routed through wil wheaton's rather epically titled: Project Do Something Creative Every Day for the Rest of the Year. and i thought, i could do that. something creative every day for a year. that's doable.

and then i realized how tired i was of feeling like a consumer all day, like at the end of the day i didn't have anything to show for it. and how this might  prove to myself that i have creative muscles, and stretch them and use them so they get back into practice.  and it might combat the Fearsome Twin Dragons of Apathy and Sitting on my Ass All Day to boot.

and then i thought, i might need a theme, in case i run out of ideas. which is how it became grow365 [pics or it didn't happen.]





How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life?
looking back on the past forty days, it's kind of astonishing to see how much has clarified, already. some realizations so far:
  • wow. i haven't run out of ideas yet. though i'd say "grow" has turned out to be more of a personal/self/work theme than an art/work theme thus far.
  • my stated "goal: stop taking yourself so seriously" is proving to be both harder and easier than i imagined. 
  • thus far this has been a solo project. ironically, all my formal training is in art that best involves more than one person (theatre, dance, choir, spectacle) 
  • i miss collaborating. i want a tribe of people in real life so we can throw each other against the wall and laugh and cry together. (the chicago < california < london timetable is currently in the way of this.)
  • i feel keenly that i am jane of all trades and master of none. and that if i want to level up to Epic Masterpiece, i'm going to have to buckle down and commit to one or two. which is terrifying. 
  • that said, i'm surprised to find that i think some of my photos kick ass.
  • other people seem to validate this in the comments. i'm even more surprised at that. 
  • it is so simple and easy to totally make someone's day in the comments. 
  • some of the pieces i almost didn't post have gotten the strongest response, and some of the ones i wish people would show more love just languish in oblivion. 
  • do i care what other people think? why?
  • i'm also confronting the part of me that thinks Epic Masterpiece is necessary. and the part that thinks becoming a Youtube star is secretly desirable. what do *I* want?

also, i have a ton of respect for people who are curating spaces of connection (like this) and bringing people (like me) out of their shells.

for the record, as of this listing, thus far the blog holds:
1 piano composition
1 piece flash fiction
20 photo sets
2 meta questions
1 manifesto
3 poems
4 pastel drawings
1 handmade envelope
3 a cappella layered recordings
1 pretentious art house film
4 sets notes taken in ink
3 doodles in pen
1 poetry reading
2 collages
1 sumi-e painting experiment
1 whiteboard stop motion film
1 song played and sung
3 confessions
1 pictionary clue



See all of Grow's creative works HERE.

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