Freddie's Daily iPad Paintings

Freddie is making daily paintings on his iPad... 

Why did you decide to do this project? A dear friend of mine told me if I want to get better at something, essentially like what you say with getting unstuck, is just to do it a lot...presumably everyday. That's what I did and when I got to the end of a year of every day, I took a break and looked around to see what's up...then I missed "it", said fuck it...and just kept going. Closing in on 900 days now. Cool stuff. 

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Very impactful and powerful. Life is beautiful. I now get to do rad stuff like share my love of creative expression with kids at the hospital here in town, larger community art projects, more commissions for clients aka $$, meet awesome people, travel around the world. 

See all of Freddie's daily paintings HERE.

365 Mini Collages

Yvonne Kettner a Dutch artist living in Duisburg, Germany is creating 365 Mini Collages...

Why did you decide to do this project? After consecutive 365 day projects with zentangles I wanted to do something new. I really liked the concept of a year long creative project with a little piece of art per day. It´s the “little” that gave me the inspiration for my mini collages. What I love most about it is that it´s all handmade and that it´s fun to do. It gives me the opportunity to create images that are just fun, free to enjoy by the beholder. Add to that an enormous collection of books, magazines and other possible imagery at my disposal and the 365 day mini collage project was born.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Having to create a piece of art every day can be quite stressful, but mostly it´s fun to do. As you´ll know, creativity flows in it´s own tempo. With a project like this that cultivates into a night where the art practically creates itself, followed by days where you don´t seem to have any idea what to place on the blank canvas in front of you. I think it´s important to respect that flow. As long as you have fun doing it, the inspiration will keep returning.

It´s a mindset really. Walking in the streets, you suddenly see fun combinations of images. Inspiration is everywhere around you. All you have to do is maintain an open mind and use what the world gives you. Or rather, what you take from your perception of the world. The joy of creating is reflected in the reactions I receive from my followers. It´s interesting to see which artwork invokes just a few reactions, while others spark a consencus of enjoyment. Whatever feedback is shared, it´s always positive. It´s quite rewarding to create images that put a smile on someones face.

See all of Yvonne's collages HERE. 

#365daysof47

Tere Hernandez-Bonet in Richmond, Virginia made #365daysof47 in which she posted one black and white photo of herself on Instagram every day for one year, beginning on her 47th birthday.

Why did you decide to do this project? It started as a whim. I have always loved seeing those photo projects that people do where they take a pic of themselves every day and then do a sped up slide show of all of them in order. I thought it would be interesting to see how much I change over the course of a year. But I wanted to make it more of a creative outlet for myself rather than just a time-lapse project by taking the same pic every day. I gave myself some parameters to work with. Each photo would be a black and white square format and a pic of just me (yes, a few cats made it in). And no stockpiling images. Each photo used was taken on the same day I posted it for a true representation of me in time.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life?  It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. It started out as a lighthearted project but became part of my daily ritual. Most days I looked forward to it but there were days that were not so fun. I lost two beloved cats over the year and the last thing I wanted to do was to take a selfie. So you'll see me crying in a few shots, but that was a true representation of me that day. It became a visual diary of sorts. I can look back and when I see a certain image, I know exactly what I was thinking and feeling on that day. I really tried to make them interesting. I didn't want it to be all glamorous selfies. Some days I'd wake up with a vision of my shot and then work through it in my head. Sometimes I'd see an object or lighting effect and it would remind me of something or spark an image composition. For instance, I saw a kids barrette on the dresser and it looked like a moth. That reminded me of the movie poster from The Silence of the Lambs and then I suddenly had my image for the day. I tried not to think too far ahead. I didn't want to spend more than a few minutes capturing each shot. 

When I completed this project on my birthday, I didn't realize how much I would miss the daily ritual of it. I will continue to post new images from time to time because I really enjoy making them.

Follow Tere on Instagram HERE and see all of her #365daysof47 posts HERE. 

Food 365

Darci Lenker in Norman, Oklahoma is creating Food 365...

What is your project about? I am embroidering a tiny piece of food every day for a year and giving them all away in exchange for a donation to helping hungry people. People can follow the link and sign up to receive one in the mail. The donations can be anything from dropping food off at a shelter or Little Free Pantry, donating money to a food bank, helping with a community garden, paying off school lunch fines, helping a food insecure family, or whatever else someone can think of. I wanted to encourage others to also give what they could. It is unfathomable that there are so many food insecure people.

Why did you decide to do this project? I was really unhappy with the outcome of the last election, and felt I needed to do something to feel like I was helping make a better world in some way. I did a 365 project last year with embroidered circles, so I had some idea what I was doing, at least when it came to preparation, and I had some idea of what would be involved in completing my goal.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? The project takes a lot more time every day than I anticipated, but it's incredibly rewarding to feel like I'm making some small difference in the world. I had no idea it would spread as far as it has. So far I've sent foods to 33 states, 10 countries, and 5 continents. Connecting with people all over the world through social media and then again through the postal service is really fun for me. I'm almost halfway through this project and have already started plans for next year.

Follow the project HERE and sign-up to be a part of it HERE!

Want to experience the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

Glitter Peach

Victoria Looney in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, England is creating daily fairy-related creations at Glitter Peach... 

Why did you decide to do this project? I was inspired by the Skull-A-Day project to do my own 365 day creative challenge. I was in a creative rut and very much felt like I had lost some of my creative skill and abilities. I used to be very creative and always drawing and creating and I felt like I needed a kick-start to get back to being arty on a regular basis.

Having suffered a couple of losses close to my heart, I could feel myself losing motivation across the board and decided to challenge myself and try to motivate myself to do at least one thing every day for a year to get me back on my feet, as such.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This has given me something to aim towards; a target to achieve; a challenge to complete.

From the start of this project I have started to see different inspiration for various materials everywhere I go and have come across some new media that I would have never thought to use for my creative challenge (including various food items, loom bands, creating a maze & a wordsearch using Excel).

I have discovered some new techniques that I really enjoyed using including; needle felting, woven ribbons, yarn painting, lace pancakes and Zentangle to name a few.

This has really helped to motivate me and I am really enjoying getting engrossed with each new material and technique and getting back in the swing of things creativity-wise.

See all of Victoria's fairies on her site and on Instagram.

Want to experience the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

Little Idea Shop

The number of days in a daily project (30, 100, 365, etc.) is just meant as a motivator. Actually achieving that goal is wonderful, but what's more important is what you gain from the process. The story below is a great example. Erin set out to write down 300 ideas in 300 days and then discovered something she really wanted to do in the midst of her daily project, so she put it on hold to pursue her passion, what better result could you ask for?!

Erin K. Barnes in Denver, created the Little Idea Shop...

Why did you decide to do this project?  As a writer and mother of two, I was brimming with ideas for inventions, startups, and just concepts that we don't talk about enough. I had all of these ideas, but didn't know which to pursue. 

In the end, ideas are just small steps toward the world we want to live in. So instead of pursuing putting one of my ideas in practice, I decided to try to jot down one idea per day and share with the world.

Then one day, I stumbled across an idea that I didn't want to share. And in fact, it was the first time that I said to myself, "This is the idea that would be best executed by no one in the world except me. I am the person to do this."

How has doing a daily project affected your life? Well, it led to me conceptualizing my newest idea: a bedtime novel for adults. Many of my ideas are worked into the novel. It allowed me to put all of my ideas in one place, and those ideas took shape, unbeknownst to me, in my psyche. They all came pouring out into a novel. It's in the workshopping stage right now, and I hope to release it in the coming months. I couldn't be happier. 

See all of Erin's ideas HERE.

Want to experience the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

New In LOU

Meena Khalili is creating a year-long daily drawing series inspired by her first year in Louisville, Kentucky called New In LOU... 

Why did you decide to do this project? I'm new here.
In the last three years I've moved four times across three states. As a travelogue illustrator and designer-of-things, the best way for me to get to know a new place is to draw it. New in LOU is a year-long drawing series inspired by my first year living in Louisville, Kentucky.

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

I’ve discovered my new home: Did you know Louisville celebrates its weirdness? This city is rich with personality around every turn. I’ve lived in DC, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee. I came to Louisville for work without knowing much more about the city than the Kentucky Derby.

I’ve become more dexterous and resolute: The ritual of drawing every day has strengthened my visual skills in myriad ways and made me more decisive about my content. I work full time as a professor of design and run my own practice, so there is simply no time to “hem and haw” over position, content, and layout. The drawing must get done, but it should also be interesting, so if I’ve done the job right, you may even be captivated for a minute.

I’ve become more observant: As much as I can, I try to adventure to places I’ve not discovered in my new city. But some days it’s the same old routine, and those are the days that are hardest. I try to be more observant of the things I may have passed over the day before. I see the mundane things (my shoes, flowers, old cars, shotgun homes) and they become an object fascination, even sparking their own micro-series’ within the greater New In LOU series.

See all of Meena's creations on Instagram and archived on her site HERE. 

Want to experience the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

365 Portraits 2017

Photographer Bill Wadman in Brooklyn, New York is making 365 Portraits 2017...

Why did you decide to do this project? I'm making portraits every day because it forces me to produce work constantly and subsequently keeps depression at bay. Also, it's been ten years since my original 365 Portraits project which started my professional photography career. So at about 11:40PM on New Years Eve I thought I'd jump in with both feet to do it again and so registered the @wadman365 Instagram account. Mostly new subjects plus a handful of alumni from the first set ten years later. It's just fun to spend some time getting to know new people and see where each new connection takes me. Plus it keeps me from reading too much about current events I have no control over. I guess that's a multi-level justification.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Ah well, since I've been through this before a number of times I knew what to expect. The biggest hurdle for me is the fact that I need a constant flow of new and dependable subjects because I must shoot and post every day. Logistics, scheduling, coming up with new and interesting ideas and compositions either beforehand or on the spot. All while juggling the next few day's people. It's a lot of balls in the air simultaneously. But I'm never upset that I have to shoot. It's more like getting my fix for the day. So I head to each one with a spring in my step.

The time commitment is certainly a big part of it and I feel that between the project and my paid editorial and commercial work, I don't have very many free minutes in each day. I should probably give the medal to my very understanding and supportive wife who has to deal with the daily ups/downs/sideways.

However the people I get to meet, the places we shoot, and collaborations I make are the best part. It's the experience of being with another person that's the prize. The portrait at the end of it is just the artifact of the experience. A couple week ago for example I ended up on the balcony on the 19th floor at the corner of the iconic Flatiron Building here in NYC. I was shooting a book editor whose offices are in the building and the big boss was out of town on business so we got to use his office. A place that few and certainly I would likely never have gotten to visit. It's a testament to the power of people and connections and the unpredictable collisions that can result.

See all of Bill's portraits HERE.

Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

Everyday Skulls

With the 10th anniversary of my original Skull-A-Day project approaching I was excited to discover this new take on the concept on Instagram recently!

Brandon Geist in Coney Island, NY is creating Everyday Skulls...

Why did you decide to do this project? At the end of last year I left my job running RollingStone.com, completely burnt out and in desperate need of a breather. One thing in particular that I missed in the hecticness of that job was any time, energy and brain power to be artistically creative, so as way of kicking starting my creative juices, I came up with this project for myself. I've always doodled skulls in spare moments and meetings, etc., so my original thought was to draw a skull a day, but that seemed too obvious and too in my wheelhouse, and so thinking about it a little more, I came up with this concept. The concept was also loosely inspired by Helen Altman's "Spice Skulls" piece, which I saw a number of years ago at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC; thinking about a daily skull art project for myself reminded me of that piece, which helped direct me to the Everyday Skulls idea.

The general rules are that the mediums should be something mundane and everyday and not purchased explicitly for the project, and also that any particular skull should be made solely from that one medium, some of the skulls push the lines a little in terms of this rule, but in general, I've tried pretty hard to abide by it because, in many ways, the constraints are what bring out the most creativity in the project.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It's been mostly fun, but occasionally feels almost like a job that I need to get done. (The number of times I've realized I haven't made a skull yet at 11:30 p.m. and scrambled to get one done...) And as I've gone on, it's definitely gotten a lot harder 1) as obvious mediums are used up, and 2) as my own standards for entries increase (I've rejected more than a few skulls as just not good enough). It has been fun, though, especially as my 5-year-old daughter has gotten interested, in helping think up mediums and make actual skulls...but mostly in consuming the skulls made in edible mediums. Seeing friend and family get caught up in the project has been cool, too, and also seeing some of my more artistic friends surprised by my dedication to my project and the creativity of it (one such friend described it as "borderline insanity"—in a complimentary way) has been fun. Maybe more than anything it's changed the way I look at the world: Now I see skulls everywhere.

See all of Brandon's skulls HERE.

Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

My Shack

Sheri Ogburn in Richmond, Virginia is creating daily in her My Shack project... 

Why did you decide to do this project? Choosing to do a Shack every day was a personal choice for me. A shack is representative of a persons heart & soul. Shacks are a place where one dwells. And shacks, like people, aren't always in the best shape and in need of lots of tender loving care. By making a shack everyday I am able to reflect on the needs of those around me yet not neglecting my own.

I'm newer to the art world after raising a family for the past 30+ years! I knew I needed to do art as its something I've always wanted to do since I was a little girl. I typically paint from photos and realized that is not the type of artist I desire to be!!! So I set out on a journey to discover who I am as an artist. My motto has been Ask, Seek, Knock which led me to meet Noah, the author of rediscovering creativity (and Make 365 and Creative Sprint)., Noah, in my opinion, is waking up creativity in everyone around the world. Not knowing what I was fully getting myself into I just had to jump on board!! No regrets! 

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I am just 68 days into the project of making Shacks every day. The first notable effect was happiness!!! I realized I could spend hours on this and happy was my countenance! The second notable effect was the realization that when your time and resources are limited your creativity is really pushed and awesome things happen!! Like good unexpected art ideas! The third effect is learning to let go of the perfectionism ruler, myself, and embracing the mistakes. Putting the art out there in the world for all to see even though my head screams its not the "best" of my ability. The fourth most surprising effect was I began to really identify and feel for people who actually live in shacks in the real world and also for the homeless. I wasn't anticipating that kind of connection. And it gives me a curiosity as to how much it will change me as a person once the 365 days has been completed. Stay tuned!!

See all of Sheri's shack's HERE.

Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

#100daysofstories

Zainab Zaheer in NYC is creating #100daysofstories...

DAY SIXTEEN: "Go ahead," he said, "it's a prayer wheel. Spin it and watch your dreams fly through the universe." "What do I pray for?" "You pray for happiness, girl." Tentative, she stepped up to it. What would she wish for, if this actually worked? That she could stay in this city for the rest of her life. That she could breathe in the skyscrapers and weird art, the trench coats and jazz nights. That she found peace - she didn't even really know what meant yet, but it had to be something like a warm summer morning, with soft pillows and pancakes and sandals. Or maybe it was like watching Sex and the City with her best friend, mixed with a cold winter evening, or sitting by a window looking out at the cityscape, with warm tea and fuzzy pajamas. The definition of happiness eluded her, a light she couldn't quite catch in her palm. Her fingers brushed against the rough edge of the wheel, the pieces of mirror cool to the touch. Light danced across face. The room was a kaleidoscope of her thoughts and dreams and she was here in it, trying to catch a feeling. Why couldn't she think of what her one wish would be? Maybe, she thought, it was because she already was happier than she'd ever been, and contentment was the greatest happiness of all. She gripped the wheel firmly with the pads of her fingers and pushed, sending the room into a tizzy of fluttering lights. "Alhumdolilah." #100daysofstories This photo was taken at an art show in the old #VanityFair @vanityfair offices at #timessquarenyc @timessquarenyc

A post shared by Zainab (@zmeetsworld) on Mar 3, 2017 at 12:47am PST

Why did you decide to do this project? 
#100daysofstories is a way for me to challenge myself and my audience to talk about things that matter - hate crime, discrimination, mean girls, the troubles couples face, the beauty of love - real issues, in a bite-sized, interesting way. So that’s what I do - write a new short story every day, for 100 days.

I decided to do the project because I wanted a short-form way to reach out and engage with my readers about the feelings that make up each of our lives. I wanted to grow as a writer, and push myself to create new situations, new characters, and make people feel, in short form.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It’s made me think in a different way for sure. I find myself looking at the most mundane things and finding stories that could come out of them. I’ll see an object and wonder about the last person that used it, see a place and imagine the last person to be there. It’s invigorating.

Read all of Zainab's stories HERE. 

DAY TEN: Twenty nine minutes to show time. Twenty nine minutes until she would be standing on a red velvet stage, staring out at a crowd of minds and bodies that would form an opinion. An opinion on whether or not she was worth their time, whether or not the stories she told spoke to them, whether or not it mattered that she was singing her life to them, at them, into their hearts. "Have you rehearsed?" She had. Until every chord rang in her mind. Asleep, awake - it didn't matter. The words were laced between her thoughts, burned into the backs of her eyes, pumping through her bloodstream, printed on her skin. They were her words. They told her story. Twenty two minutes to show time. Twenty two minutes to three cameras pointing at her, their red blink-blink making her permanent, making that moment last, making it re-playable, re-judgeable, re-maybe-loveable. Her dress was on. All the right bits were tucked and trussed and trimmed and shaped. Fifteen minutes to when the band played the first chord. Fifteen minutes to the first strum of a guitar. Fifteen minutes and she still couldn't get this freaking eyeliner on. Ten minutes. Everyone was rushing around. She held hands and prayed. She laughed and posed and did some last minute smiling. Two minutes left until she walked through that velvet curtain. Two minutes left until she told these strangers about every haunting she'd turned into song. Every scary night and angry day, every bottle and breath that she had poured into words and notes and chords and love. The lights went on. Showtime. #100daysofstories #showtime Last night I had the pleasure of seeing my dear friend @raeganagram perform her first full length show in #nyc🗽 Make sure you take a look at her work. Photo taken on an iPhone 7, at 15 Central Park West.

A post shared by Zainab (@zmeetsworld) on Feb 25, 2017 at 9:43am PST

DAY EIGHTEEN: He looked at the face on the floor. Visible only from a few angles, the pile of raggedy hand-me-downs looked a little like his mother. Maybe he was just hallucinating. He'd almost walked by the installation, thinking it was one of those weird modern art abstract things his thick head wouldn't understand anyway, but the artist had caught his eye. He had ushered him to the right spot, told him to stand right there and take a photo. And then there is was. Saved in his phone. A face made out of tattered jeans and washed-too-many-times whites that were now yellow. "All from the donation bin," the artist said. "Just whatever was left behind." What was left behind was exactly what he's grown up wearing. The foster home never had enough money for them to have new clothes, and he'd spent years nicking the cool shirts from Hot Topic, stuffing them under his jacket. Now shirts just like those were tied up and twisted into this. The fabric that made her mouth looked like the patchwork bedspread they'd made for their DIY bedroom redesign that one Christmas. "A family activity" his mum had said, trying to get everyone excited. Her hair was his mothers hair - bad dye jobs and not enough money to go to the salon. She'd always smell strongly of bleach and chemical when she'd try to give herself a new look. Her eyes were his mothers eyes, beautiful but dead inside. Weather-worn and beautiful. He wiped a tear from his cheek quickly. Grown men didn't cry in public. Grown men didn't miss their mum. #100daysofstories #springbreakartfair @springbreakartfair Note: This artwork, titled "Sight Specific" is by artist Noah Scalin #noahscalin @noahscalin and was a piece I really enjoyed seeing at Spring / Break Art Fair in NYC, 2017. Today's story is my own work and does not reflect Noah Scalin's perspective. Thanks to @raegansealy for inviting me. :)

A post shared by Zainab (@zmeetsworld) on Mar 4, 2017 at 10:15pm PST

Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

 

Mannequin a Day

Ana Miller (aka Neon Ninelives) in Sydney, Australia is creating Mannequin a Day, during her pregnancy. It's a daily photography project, centering on her mannequin Magenta...

Why did you decide to do this project? Inspired by your work & comments on your blog for others to get cracking via Skull-A-Day and after the realisation I can’t work on my other project (revamping a pre-loved Barbie doll house, ‘M’ rated as it’s out there) as it requires a lot of glue gun action.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? My shiny new project has brought back my creative mojo! My head is continually buzzing with ideas, each day is a full spectrum of go go with a spoonful of obsession! Plus it’s helping me forget about the complications with my pregnancy so it’s all the colours of the rainbow. I feel this project will also intertwine with other projects in terms of revisiting areas that had question marks.

See all of Ana's creations HERE. 

Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.

Cup A Day

Kate McGhee in South London, UK is creating a Cup A Day...

Why did you decide to do this project? When I started, I was a veteran of two Creative Sprints. I was completely sold on the benefits of having a daily creative practice. On my second #CreativeSprint, I stuck to a single theme. Despite my natural preference for freedom, flexibility and spontaneity, I enjoyed it even more. So, I knew I wanted to try a #Make365, but was keen to find a single theme that would keep me interested and inspired for a whole year.

Why cups? A couple of months went by, and my theme of cups found me. I have a fondness for ceramic design, especially from the 1920s. I love speciality teas, coffees and traditional afternoon tea. Cups are so ubiquitous and I felt the subject ought to spark lots of different creative ideas.

I’ve not told anyone this, but a minor first-world disappointment of mine is cafés that serve coffee in glassware, so to have a year-long homage to cups, proper cups, seemed even more appropriate. 

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’ve met a host of lovely new people, both online and IRL; particularly those completing their own 365 projects. It’s a very supportive environment and you learn a lot from each other, if you take the time to look at others’ projects. I’ve become more involved with creative members of my local community, which is terrific. I’ve pulled some out-of-character stunts during Make 365 such as crowd-sourcing ideas for milestone Instagram posts, like my 100th post, encouraging people from around the world to help me celebrate my birthday by making celebratory cups and starting up a Sunday Guest Cup slot.

I’m not a professionally trained artist or photographer. I come to this from a business and marketing background; so it’s been great to strip off the suit, so to speak, really tune into my creative side, and adjust my commercial/analytical instincts. I’ve also used tons of different art materials/media and been far more experimental and risk-taking in my approach. After doing this for several months, undertaking other major projects seems much less daunting.

I’ve modified my tempo consciously. When you lead a busy life, it’s easy to side-line the moments for creativity. However, the more creating you do, the faster you become and the less you feel stuck for ideas, and this translates to other problem-solving areas too. I genuinely see it as a valuable brain workout. It opens up pathways that you’d never get to, if you just carried on with your normal routine.

I love the fact that the rest of my family seems to have caught the creating bug too. My husband started his own Make 365, my 9 year-old daughter is flourishing as an artist and my 5-year old son is into model-making. After being reluctant to even pick up a pencil, he has started producing wonderful work. Seeing creative contagion take hold of others is very rewarding.

See all of Kate's cups on her site HERE or on Instagram. 

Want to see the benefits of your own daily practice? Get the new book Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges To Jumpstart Your Creativity.