365 ~ Tree Please

Misha Bean (a.k.a. Michelle Earle) in the Greater Cincinnati Area is spending a year making trees with her project 365 ~ Tree Please...


Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to create a 365 day project because the idea of doing so, reading about everyone else doing the same, immediately lit me up inside. I knew it was something I needed and wanted to do. When inspiration comes knocking, I do my best to listen.

Because I enjoy a wide variety of mediums, the idea of limiting myself to just one seemed doomed for failure, not that I couldn’t or wouldn’t follow through, but that I would more than likely end up wishing I had given myself more creative license. I also considered keeping it very loose and simple by having the only parameters being to make something every day, but that seemed to lack the challenge that I’m looking for.

After days of considering many possibilities, the one I kept coming back to was a love near and dear to my heart: trees.

Trees have inspired me since I was a child and are so very important to the health of our planet. If my celebrating them in silly and beautiful ways can help raise awareness that it takes a mere $1 to help rebuild the most endangered rain forest on the planet, while also providing  me a creative outlet for showing my gratitude for the beauty all around us, then I call it a good day. With any luck, I'll have 365 of them.





How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Being a mother, a small business owner and a self-representing artist leaves me with very little time to express myself creatively. Committing to this project is forcing me to take the time. After only a couple of weeks into the project, I am already learning things I didn't expect to learn about myself. Prior to beginning the project, I thought I was pretty relaxed about giving myself permission to take the time to create, but I was wrong. I still have work to do in fully allowing myself to mentally set aside the less fun to-do list, although having added the 365 project to my daily list has helped tremendously!


See all of Misha's tree's HERE (warning the site is noisy, so you may want to turn down your speakers first).

5 comments:

Peety Draws said...

What a great daily project! Really inspiring imagery.

Anonymous said...

So nice to see the talented Misha featured here. Your initiative is wonderful, as is the inspirational ripple effect that it has created. Perhaps "warning" and "noisy", however, are a touch blunt given the ambiance and mellowness of the music that she chooses for her pieces.

Anonymous said...

Awesome!!

Unknown said...

Brilliant idea. I love the quilled one.

Misha said...

Thanks, all ~:)