A Yin Yang A Day

Emily Adelman in Ann Arbor, Michigan  is creating a A Yin Yang A Day...


Why did you decide to do this project? I saw Noah’s book online called 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!  Being someone who is not likely to turn down a challenge, I decided to take it on.

I chose the yin yang because it is often a symbol of my astrological sign, Gemini, the sign of twins, which is dual-natured, elusive, complex and contradictory.  I believe this correctly describes myself.





How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I have done a lot of research on the Yin Yang symbol, its meaning and history, and have discovered parts of myself that really relate to the dual-natured aspect of the Yin Yang.    I often find that doing art is a form of meditation for me because I tend to zone out (in a good way) when I’m working on my pieces. This project has also given me some excitement in my life, something to look forward to, I really enjoy hearing feedback from my friends and family who are following my blog.


See all of Emily's Yin Yangs HERE.

Richard Radstone: Operation-365

In September of 2012 Richard Radstone completed his amazing Project-365 in which he interviewed a complete stranger every single day for a year.  He has now begun work on a brand new project he calls Operation-365. Below he talks about the inspiration for this new project and how his life was transformed by his original project...



September 9, 2011... the day my one-year journey began. For 365 consecutive days... approach, interview and photograph a complete stranger, then, every day process the photos and blog about the experience. It was a sleepless year, but well worth it.

I spoke with thousands of people and formally interviewed hundreds. All came from the greatest diversity of culture and outlook. I was hugged, fed and trusted, as well as ignored, spit upon and pushed aside. And, in all, one grand truth emerged... we are all undeniably in this life experience together.

Remarkably, the majority of those I approached subscribed to a similar hope for a more caring and connected people. Equally as impactful were the many who subscribed to and commented on the projects blog roll. Communications from just about every part of the free world arrived on a daily basis; and through it, grew a neighborhood far beyond my Los Angeles boarders.

I’ve grown to call us “The Silent Majority.” The you and I’s that pass shoulders every day in every part of this planet Earth; that sphere of perpetual movement that we label as society, workplace, and even, family.

That beginning blog, grew to own its own title, “Project-365.” And with it, the path of my career has been literally redirected, and, best of all, it is for the betterment of more than just myself. Sure, my outlook towards the world has blossomed, and my understanding of fellow human matured, but better yet, I’ve witnessed first hand that the world is shrinking in more ways than we realize.

Absolutely, technology has brought the information stream to our fingertips. A chisel has been placed in our hands; a streaming tool that if used responsibly, can help us to chip away at the walls of fear that separate far too many of us.

Walls whose foundations are weak from overly exploited media, hidden agendas, and destructive gossip. Virtual barriers that through our efforts are slowly falling as we stand up to shout in unison, “We are all human!” 

One year of Project-365 past, conversations with over two thousand strangers, formal interviews of hundreds more, and comments submitted from all over the globe have taught us a unifying and powerful perspective.

The borders of fearful silence that have separated so many are beginning to open. I believe this in the deepest depths of my heart. It’s been proven to me not by my own means, but via the words of the many who have so bravely shared their stories through Project-365.


The world is growing to become a much smaller planet for all who have the courage, and stamina, to enlist in mutual cause. Absolutely, there will never be a time when we will all agree on any one issue. And, without a doubt, life has the potential to break us all with its vast and complex set of circumstances. But, with pause, as we examine this experience we call self... there is a universal builder greater than any other man created opinion, “The power of accepting love.” 

Technology has given us a remarkable tool; one that let’s us look far beyond our own geographical limitations and biased perceptions. Project-365 has proven there are many who are willing to do the face-to-face work that is required to reach out within their individual neighborhoods and cultures. Yes, one sleepless year has taught me well, and anchored to my own life history of ups and downs, I have been profoundly and irreversibly affected. There is no looking back now, only forward, as I dedicate the rest of my breathing days to do all that I can to connect as many people as possible in sharing a common mission: To look upon each other with a greater desire to simply... “Understand.”

I wish a great wish: That we unite in this virtual world, only to use it as a starting point to a much more tactile and global effect – “Eyes up and open to the world” from hence fourth... our call as we charge forward into the next chapter of building this very attainable community.

Welcome to Operation-365 my new friends... we are no longer strangers.

24/7… 365 days a year, we are an interactive, growing and forward thinking community… a living, breathing society of people of all beliefs, circumstances and mindsets. We are optimistic and inclusive, with doors open to all who embrace the embodiment of our mission: “To champion the individual voice, while building bridges towards a greater understanding of our neighbors.”

There are many ways people around the world can engage with us, and with each other… In doing so, they join together as active participants in a unifying global outreach. One that holds strong to a singular call to action: “To awaken and unite through a simple re-programming of the way we think of, interact with and view one another.” We truly are building an internationally vibrant community – one that is open-eyed and awakened. A place where mind and actions transcend the information stream as we all look up and outward; even towards one another.

Operation-365… A culture where the voice of the individual is remarkable! 


Check out Richard's new project HERE.

Read Richard's original 365 interview HERE.

365 Days of Heather II

Heather Addley in Richmond, VA has begun another year of her 365 Days of Heather self-portrait project...


Why did you decide to do this project? This is my second year doing this project. I took a year off and really missed it.



How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project has really helped me concentrate on making a new piece of art every single day.



See all of Heather's days HERE.



Read Heather's previous 365 interview HERE.

Erin's A Face A Day

Erin Bunting in Huron, Ohio is creating A Face A Day 2013: 365 Self Portraits and Others...



Why did you decide to do this project? This is my fifth year-long project in 5 years, but it is the first one that I've made public via a blog and Twitter.

Noah Scalin's Skull-A-Day project visited the Sandusky Cultural Center a few years back. I loved it so much, and was so excited and inspired by it. I tucked the idea of a daily year-long challenge away in my mind until the time was right to pursue my own project.

My first 2 year-long projects were writing projects. My first photography project was 365 days of self portraits in 2011. Last year was "No Day Without Art," which incorporated self portrait photography as well as lots of other media, from papier-mache, to theater performance, to playwrighting, to stop motion animation, to masks, to sculpture, to painting, to jewelry, to a leather corset, to linoleum block prints, to sidewalk chalk. You name it. 



For 2013, I really wanted to get back to self portraits, but didn't want to give up the freedom and discovery of exploring other art forms. Also, I wanted to look deeper into a style of self portraiture that didn't literally use my own face. Many of the faces on the blog are not my own, or even human, but the images are still, nevertheless, very personal and very much self portraits. Sometimes using another face uncovers even more emotional truth, allowing me to get even closer to the bone.

As I said, I am also a writer. This year, I wanted to blend my writing and my photography, as well as my love of self portraiture, and creating a blog seemed like a good way to mash it all up for 365 days. I don't write every day. I didn't want to put dual pressures on myself. But when the spirit moves me, I scribble a little something. I shoot the photos a day ahead, and I try to write the posts in one draft, without over-editing and re-working them. I want everything to feel spontaneous and fresh. I'm not trying to be super-profound. I'm just chronicling the 365 days as I go. I just hope that when people look at my portraits and read the words that go with the images, that they feel something, think something, understand something or discover something -- not necessarily about me, but hopefully about themselves or someone they know.

 


How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? My 365 days projects haven't just affected my life. They've saved my life. I began making self portraits as art therapy during a particularly difficult time, and got hooked on the art form as a way to say the unsayable. For me, self portraiture is how I journal. Taking pictures of my outside is how I look inward. And even if nothing else good happens on any given day, as long as I made my "face," it was a day worth living.


See all of Erin's faces HERE.

Artpojeckt - 365 Collages and Assemblages Follow-up

Anita Westin in Sweden completed her 365 Collages and Assemblages project on March 25th 2013...



What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? To do art-work even if I am not in the mood make me get into the mood. I get focused even if I am not when I start.  In fact I was convinced about the process before I started the project but now I really know what I am talking about. Inspiration isn´t the beginning. It comes with working on it!



In what ways did the project change your life? The project changed me in a way, I am much more dedicated to art-work today then when I started. I did want to have a studio on my own again and now I have it! I did move during the 365 project, and that made me have a break. I did use the camera all the time though, just to keep it going, but I didn't include those pics in the project. An other thing is that in the project I have chosen materials that I have not tried before and it makes me feel free in exploring new ways to make art, and I think that will show in my coming works.
 

Now what? I am going to keep the project in order in my books of photos, and in the boxes I have got for it. Maybe there will be a small exhibition, including the best items. I have not made a decision about that yet. But the important thing to me is that I will use the project as a bank of ideas and I have already started to make a four-part painting from one of the ideas. I enjoy it. I guess after a while I will start a new project since I do miss working on it already!


Read Anita's original 365 interview HERE.


See all of Anita's collages & assemblages HERE.

Four Each Day

Scott Lee Williams in Brooklyn is doing a project called Four Each Day. He explains, "Four Each Day is a blog in which I write four sentences each day, about something that happened that day (within the previous 24 hours). After some false starts over the years (I've been doing it on and off since 2007) I am well on my way this year to actually accomplishing my goal of 365 days of posting."...





Why did I decide to do this project? It started initially as a response to James Kolchalka's "American Elf" comic. I was frustrated by the fact that I love the webcomic format, but had very neither drawing skills, nor much inclination to learn.

Since I'm relatively fluent in the English language, I (rather stupidly in retrospect) decided to write a blog post as if each sentence was a panel in a comic, as if the two formats could somehow transpose in some meaningful fashion. Of course, what ended up happening had very little resemblance to a comic, web or otherwise, but I liked the restriction, and decided to keep it.


How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected my life? The format itself had an interesting effect on my writing style, in that I've had to learn how to construct sentences with both greater economy and greater density of information. If I only have four sentences in which to communicate the details essential to whatever story I'm trying to tell, I'd better be able to pack exactly what I need into what little space I have. This leads in two directions:  simplicity, and byzantine elaboration. I've become conversant in subordinate clauses, abstruse punctuation rules, and in using the precise word in the exact spot. This has made my longer form writing more interesting to read, and more crafted.

The effect of doing something every day, on the other hand, has been of a different sort. The blog is a way of transforming my life.

A quote I read recently pretty much captures it: "Stories happen to those who tell them." If I'm paying attention to my life in order to have a story to tell everyday, I begin to pay more attention to my life in general. As I pay attention, my life becomes more interesting, more fun, and wiser. As I write out the stories of my life, more stories come to me, in an increasingly positive feedback loop. I also come to recognize how much the story that is my life is constructed, how much I create it in the telling. From this, I'm learning to tell stories more to my liking, and thus to create a better life.


Read all of Scott's sentences HERE.

ZOELAB 365

Zoë Edmonds in Elias Calles, Baja California Sur, Mexico is creating ZOELAB 365. She explains, that it's, "365 days of words and image (with additional music and video on occasion) every day for one year. A spontaneously unfolding autobiography about my past, present and future as I build a creative life with my husband and son off the grid in Baja, Mexico. The goal is to live life as art, and keep up my creative flow as well as balance, and inspire others to give up a little practicality in order to live an enchanted life."






Why did you decide to do this project? In September I was inspired by reading The Happiness Project and decided that I wanted to create my own improvised Happiness Project in blog form. The key features of my happiness project are: creativity, productivity and honesty. After moving to Mexico and becoming a Mom, I really missed my inner creative world as well as being connected to other people--and thought that this blog would increase my connection to a creative community. I wanted to chronicle and share the amazing and unusual life that we are living--which truly leaves me feeling grateful everyday. I have discovered that the keys to my happiness are: creativity, community, balance, compassion and honesty. I am using myself as a guinea pig and learning tool in these pursuits--to see how I can apply my lessons learned to my work as a creativity teacher and coach. (www.arforlifebaja.com)



How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project has gotten me in touch with my creative dreams and my true self, which has sped up my path of spiritual, artistic and vocational development. My site creates a space of integration for dual aspects of self as well as my varied interests--and the result is I am developing deep compassion for the complexities of being human. I am learning more about how to be a communicator and have reconnected with my life long desire to use the arts to communicate on a large scale. I have been experiencing intense feelings of passion, creative flow, inspiration, intellectual curiosity and desire to connect with people in honest, yet aesthetic ways. I am also getting back in touch with the importance of feminism and empowerment--to support, not only women, especially women who want to be communicators and leaders, but also to support the feminine principle--receptivity, intuition, emotion, wholeness, right brain attributes--in a culture that overvalues the linear logic of the left brain. The most surprising thing that I have experienced is that this drive and passion has helped me to overcome the fear and shyness of putting my work and beliefs out in the world. I find myself willing to connect with people in the public eye with no fear of judgment or rejection. This challenge has made me far more capable and productive than I previously imagined I could be.


See all of Zoë's projects HERE.

The Amazing Link Follow-up

Cheryl Colee recently hit the 2 year mark on her daily project documenting the adventures of The Amazing Link the cat...




What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? I learned that it was really easy to find the time every day to create something that was important to me.



In what ways did the project change your life? The project taught me to prioritize, daily. To create enough time in my daily routine to create something that I've discovered makes me happy as well as others who view my drawings.


Now what? I'm going to keep drawing Link every day, searching for interesting and fun things for him to do (or at least until my friends and family get tired of me asking for ideas). I would like to get The Amazing Link published; kids seem to be incredibly intrigued by Link and his adventures.




Read Cheryl's original 365 interview HERE.


See all of The Amazing Link HERE.

Danny Collage

Daniel James Leznoff in Montreal, Canada is posting daily collages at Danny Collage...



Why did you decide to do this project? After creating 500 pieces in a 3-year period, I took my friends' advice to digitize and share my work. I realized that I'm lucky enough to fit this prolific output into a daily format. Stockpiling such a backlog of images has certainly helped.



How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? So far, the response has been wonderful. The images have been enjoyed and shared extensively on tumblr, and in just one month of operation I've received international press attention from Chile (A Normal Mag) to Sweden (Visual Cache). More in store.



See all of Daniel's collages HERE.

Field of Ponies

Julie Berube, a fashion designer from Montreal, Canada who currently resides in London UK is creating daily in her Field of Ponies project...


Why did you decide to do this project? I had my own womenswear label here in London for 6 years before having my 2 children and decided to put everything on hold. I'm preparing a fashion come-back for 2014, but right now I am mainly at home looking after my young daughter and son whilst I'm sketching and sourcing fabrics for my fashion line. I was looking for a project to keep me focussed on deadlines, to make me explore other mediums than the ones I normally use and also to generate a social media following (and get to grip with all the different platforms).

For many years I have been toying with the name "Field of Ponies" for a trade mark and when I got your book, I immediately new I had to make one pony a day. I'm not sure why, I know I have to do this project and that something good and exciting will come out of it (I've been asked to design T-shirts already!) My approach is to use stuff that I can put my hands on during that day. I don't want to buy anything specifically for the project nor do I spend too much time on it. I work fast and furiously!





How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’m only two and a half weeks into the project, so it’s a little early to say how it has affected me. I try not to think about it too much because I want it to feel quite spontaneous. I find this challenging because I’ve had a small but faithful audience since day one – and I don’t want to disappoint them! I am very surprised at how people are responding to the project. Some have said it’s like receiving a gift every day and I hadn’t anticipated that reaction. In fact I thought they’d more likely be annoyed at seeing ponies every day on their Facebook feed! I feel it’s a privilege to provide my audience with a little smile every day, and bearing this in mind helps me to keep on going. I’ve had a lot of requests for t-shirts, which is something I will look into further down the line. I think what has changed the most for me since starting the project is that I now feel extremely connected to people. I haven’t been in an awkward situation as yet, but I think this will inevitably happen as I begin to create outside of my immediate environment. My motto is: start where you are, use what you have, do what you can!



You can see all of Julie's ponies on her blog or on Facebook.