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. 

365 Days of Star-Gazing

Lena Josfeld from "mostly" Jena in Germany is doing 365 Days of Star-Gazing...

Why did you decide to do this project? Lately, I have felt a great urge to be creative in some way, but no matter what I tried, nothing seemed to work for me. In times like that, at some point, my brain always discovers the 'emergency switch' - and once more, like so many times before, the idea surfaced to start a long-time project. (To tell the truth, I was not very enthusiastic about it, then.)

I spent some time pondering different subjects for this project, many of them sounding quite fancy: I liked the subjects as such, but they didn't exactly trigger creativity. Then I thought of stars. And I thought what a boring, predictable subject that was. Until my brain suddenly started working on ist own accord and bombarded me with ideas, keeping me awake until 3 in the morning. For some reason, those stars got me really excited and I was completely taken. I didn't ask why. I simply accepted the challenge.

Later, I found some very good reasons why I should pick stars as my constant companions for the next year. Here are some:

• It's a subject that may be simple enough to make it possible for me to work on it every day for an entire year.
• It also offers a lot of possibilities to make this challenging and creative for when I feel like it (and when I find the time - full-time university student, me).
• I have actually been interested in stars (those real shining objects out in the night sky) for years which even got me to learn some physics along the way.
• They are always there - whether we see them or not. I like to be reminded of that.
• Then again, many stars are not there anymore. What we see is really a window to the past. - Also a very interesting notion.
• You cannot have sunshine in your life every single day. But how about a little more starshine? After all, there isn't much of a difference.
• There seems to be no limit. No human mind could possibly conceive the limit of the number of stars out there - should there be one at all.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? With a whole lot of excitement! There are moments when I cannot sit still, I just have to work on it. On the other hand, I'm beginning to relax more and not be as perfectionist about my work as before - which is a good thing! And I'm just getting started...
 

What I really love about this challenge is how many different and new techinques I can try now - and I don't have to spend hours wondering what exactly I'm going to make using these techniques.

See all of Lena's stars HERE.