My Arm: the Comic

Patrick Yurick in San Diego California is creating My Arm: the Comic He explained that it was, "conceived after buying a $50 Groupon for a tattoo and agonizing over commitment until the idea of creating a blank comic template came to mind. 5 months later, and a lot of teasing from artistic friends, the template was done and on July 1st "My Arm: the Comic" was launched with the goal of embracing daily creativity without the hustle and bustle that a graphically demanding comic project would entail."

Why did you decide to do this project? I am working on a 2 year long project called "American BOOM!" and it is really time intensive and requires a lot of patience. I sometimes work on a page 20 hours with my business partner, Alonso Nunez, and it is exhausting to do. While, at the same time, I am running a business: Little Fish Comic Book Studio Because of these two projects I found myself not drawing as much as I would like to.



When I got the groupon and brainstormed for the tattoo - it came up as a natural idea to get a blank comic section on my arm to fill in, and then it was a natural movement to make a goal of doing daily work with it. This is my relaxation project. I am encouraging my friends and fans to write me strips to do every day. It already is becoming a really fun conversation starter and I have really enjoyed the positive praise since beginning.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I have been only doing this a week. I think the biggest ways it has affected my life is that people love to talk to me about it. It is so easy to understand as a concept that people just love to come up to me and discuss the comic in a way that they never really did with my more serious projects "Hipster Picnic" & "American BOOOM!". So that is fun.

Follow Patrick's arm HERE.

Daily Creative Action

Bethany Jordan in Hempstead, Texas is creating a Daily Creative Action. She explains it as an, "Artistic venture in Steampunk - that can be posted in some way to the blog. As I say on my site, any medium is fair game. I have done woodwork, painting, drawing, computer art, jewelry, vehicles, essays, and photography so far, and I am always considering new ideas."...

Why did you decide to do this project? I am still articulating this but will try. I do a lot of types of artistic and creative work, but I lack focus and frequently do not finish things. I have lived a lot of places and traveled quite a bit, this influences my work, my art, my views, my focus, and my style. Over time, I have rarely sold pieces, though I have had some very good offers. My mother spent years working to get me to focus on my artistic skills and make a living with them. A major point was I rarely share my art with anyone and I often do not finish. When she died recently I was already beginning work focusing on a motorcycle business and working from home. I decided the day after my first wedding anniversary was a perfect day to act on what mom pushed me to do my whole life. I am going to finish something every day and show anyone that wants to look. I want input, comments, ideas, and simply an audience. I have not followed the book exactly, though I use it for ideas and a focus, I record my work and ideas in it also. I know I will use it more as I progress. I am for the first time opening my art, my work, and myself to the world and intend to share this journey with as many people as possible.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life?

1. Technology. I have learned to work a blog, as mom tried to get me to teach her for several years. I am also learning new programs and styles.
2. Insomnia. Lack of sleep is high on my list of problems with having a job, working at home, and doing a project every day but it is nice to have an accomplishment at the end of the day. 
3. Relationship. My husband is both supportive and suggests sleep, but he has been a huge help and I think this will prove good for us. He also frequently has ideas on how to turn something into a smaller size or staged project to meet my deadline. One suggestion was the mini canvases at Hobby Lobby.
4. Evaluation. A requirement to finish a project each day requires constant rethinking of my concepts on the subject, my art, what fits, how to do something, why to do something, and what I think about.
5. Meditation, focus, creative development – very connected things in this project. Years ago, I meditated regularly and actively worked on my focus. I have moved a very long distance several times in the last year and was feeling very loose and unstable. This gives me a combination of things to help that: a focus, a constant sense of accomplishment, a steady cord, visible development. My art tends to change significantly when I move and having moved quite a lot, I was feeling displaced and am needing a chance to develop my identity, style, strengths, ideas, and courage as an artist.
6. Learning. I am developing a deeper understanding and relationship to my topic: Steampunk. I am a researcher at heart and am learning art forms, history, materials, culture, people, and more. I have been a great subject of study for myself.
7. Stress. Life is very stressful right now and the ability to turn away from that and have something guaranteed to be there and to have an accomplishment means a lot; even when it leaves me tired and irritated with the piece.
8. Acceptance. Learning to accept things not going as planned and how to deal with overestimating what I could get done is good for me. I am still working on this, but see a difference already. (The corner shelf painting image is an example, I vastly overestimated the time I needed and the time I had, I was not able to finish and had to decide how to deal with that.)
9. Input. Outside input and comments are hard for me to accept on my art. There tends to be a lot of me in my work and a comment that feels negative I do not respond well and considering at the time how to respond does not happen. Should I be accepting, open, angry, questioning, cautious  defensive, disregard, consider, evaluate, or respond? I am having to learn this now.

See all of Bethany's actions HERE.

365 Days of Candy

Dana is a 20 year old from Israel who is using the Kindle version of my book to create 365 Days of Candy!...

Why did you decide to do this project? I was looking for something to reboost my creativity and inspiration to create (which was dead for a few months). I started reading, and decided to start my own project - 365 days of candy, aka A Candy a Day project. So far, I've been following the ideas in your book but I'm planning on collaborating with other artsie friends and also kids (my younger brother, who is 11, already asked to help).

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I've only started 3 days ago, and already I feel a change - suddenly I have new ideas, and I get so excited planning things out and making them. I already started to experience with new techniques and it really does boot both my spirit and creative inspiration.

Follow Dana's progress on Tumblr and Facebook.

Drink

Alex in Richmond, VA challenged himself to record every beer he drank across Europe "with as many awesome places in the background as possible." The result is Drink...

Why did you decide to do this project? Watched the Move, Eat, Learn videos of 3 guys traveling across Europe and thought they were pretty awesome. Decided to put my own twist on it and video every beer I had in our month long trip to Europe (or at least 1 per location).

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Well, going to Europe was awesome! I'd say it made me step out of my comfort zone. I wanted to get unique shots so I ended up taking some awkward videos in odd public places (like in an airport). It was a cool experience.

Kari's 365 Collage Follow-Up

Kari McDonald completed her yearlong 365 Collage Project on June 11, 2013....

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? When starting a new piece, it's best for me to start and finish the piece in a couple days. I'm not cut out to do a new piece everyday (no pun intended!). It is beneficial for improving creativity to work on something everyday, I just have such a hard time starting and finishing one piece in one day. I also found that setting personal goals or deadlines can only do so much. If I want to complete something by a certain time, I need an outside accountability like setting a date for a show at a venue so that it has to be done on time. If I didn't do this, the project would have gone on for 5 years or I never would have finished.

In what ways did the project change your life? Having such a large body of work will forever change my artwork to come. It is such a diverse body of work that I can pull ideas from, continue themes that were successful, and rework those that didn't quite work. It helped me get out some themes and ideas that I probably would not have discovered if I was not forced to make so many pieces. It will also be a huge reminder for the rest of my life that I can accomplish big things with patience, persistence, and hard work. It's a nice bragging right! Now that the project is over, my life is changed by being able to spend more time with my husband again. He was just as glad, if not more, that it is finally over!

Now what? I started this project to keep me creative after I graduated art school in December 2010. I wanted something to keep me moving while building up my printmaking studio. Even though the project took more than two years to complete, the timing was perfect. I have more equipment now and have a body of work to glean from. Collaboration with my father-in-law has developed with his printmaking studio that is in its final stages of being built. My goal is to now create a new body of work with my etchings, woodcuts, and screenprints. It has been a long time coming and it has been eating away at me that I haven't been able to print for so many years. I'm really looking forward to printing again. Original collages and giclee prints of the collages will be available in my Etsy shop once the live show comes down on July 10th.

You still have a few days to see all of Kari's project in person at Rockford Art Deli at 402 E. State Street in  Rockford, IL.

Read Kari's original 365 interview HERE.

See all of Kari's colleges HERE.

Cube Chandelier

Malissa D. Subhaw in Middletown NY is working daily on Cube Chandelier...

Why did you decide to do this project? I love small containers....something that holds something. These cubes are empty inside but the treasure is on the outside of it.  The colors, textures and messages all inspired by my day to day living.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This journey although not yet complete has challenged me both emotionally and creatively.  There were times I had no energy or desire to create but I pushed though, the results were surprising and rewarding.  I'm a photographer and this project has me photographing everyday, opening my eyes to new projects and also new mediums.

See all of Malissa's cubes HERE.