A Bird A Day

Stripygoose in London created a bird a day for a year from September 1st 2013 to August 31st 2014!




Why did you decide to do this project? I came across mailart 365, thanks to working alongside its founder, Andy Hoang, for a while, and was immediately interested. So I started making and blogging mailart every day for a year, and completed my first 365 in March 2013. I loved it so much I knew I wanted to repeat the experience and decided, as I’m stripygoose and drawing and collaging birds makes me happy, it had to be a bird a day. I was really tempted by the challenge of having a single theme for all 365 postcards.



How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It’s brought me a tonne of enjoyment and connected me with mailartists all over the world. Now, other mailartists send me bird art in the post and that’s wonderful too.

The happy-sense of achievement is a great feeling. The daily practice has a surprising and liberating effect, in spite of it being a routine. It also guaranteed that I spent time every single day doing something I like doing. That can’t be bad can it - sometimes it was only a few minutes, sometimes longer, but always worth it.

Inspired by all of this, I have started going to a fantastic, local community arts group and am amazed to say I have exhibited some of my art in galleries too. I’ve rediscovered a love of art.


See all of Stripygoose's birds HERE and HERE.

Birds365

Kathleen Neylan-Moore in Richmond, VA is creating Birds365...

Why did you decide to do this project? I love owls.  I also need to do something that gives my brain a rest and a workout at the same time--get my mind off of school, work, and chores; my 24/7/365 life.




How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I had been doing a start-stop-start-stop 365 project thing since I bought your book. I've started a couple of blogs, a business, and a non-profit (Gregg Neylan Memorial Education Trust) in the nonce, and gained three more children.  My head hurts from thinking too much in the box; I need to start to think out of the box and give my brain a much needed rest from the everyday.

See all of Kathleen's birds HERE.

365 Birds Project

Eduardo Silva Franco in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil is doing a 365 BIRDS PROJECT.

He explains, "The 365 Birds Project, is a personal project that consists in recording and writing about 365 species of birds in one year. That is, I need to push myself to register somehow [observation with the naked eye; observation with binoculars, photographic, sound recording] 365 species and, every day, create a post describing how was the recording and writing a little about the animal . Obviously, I do not need to observe the bird species on the post, which would be virtually impossible. Example, if on 01/01/13 I made a birding and record 30 species, will have at least 30 posts guaranteed. Over time and with the records repeating itself, I have to force myself to seek new species, increasing the level of difficulty of the project."

"It may seem easy suddenly to be the same, but just to get an idea in Belo Horizonte / MG are 347 species of birds recorded [historical documents, published works and direct observations]. Even though I watch all kinds of town, which is surely impossible because some are not seen in years, I could not achieve the ultimate goal of the project. So, I need to make some trips, short or long, to enable the record of 365 birds."

Why did you decide to do this project? The Birds 365 Project grew out of a sum of inspirations that came from projects and conversations of friends.

About the desire to write about birdwatching or birding [birding] on a blog, appeared after his friend Daniel Esser, who writes absurdly well and treats the subject with a special affection, start telling "tales" of our wanderings in search of birds. His blog, PEGANDO PASSARINHO, is indeed a great place for beginners quickly fall in love for the activity.

About the choice of format design, I opted for the 365 days / species in a conversation with his friend Marcelo Goes, who also has a blog, BLOG DO INTERCÂMBIO. It's worth checking, has received some awards!

Also, some time ago that I needed to organize my record of birds. The paperwork [but extremely necessary] just reducing my time dedicated to studies and technical side of birding. I thought nothing would be better than a great challenge to have reasons to come back to enjoy birding!

I hope throughout this project inspire more and more people to engage the birdwatching!

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? The project is phenomenal and I am very happy with the returns with praise from all followers. My family is getting involved too. It was a challenging choice and I will get!

Follow all of Eduardo's birds HERE.

Marika Makes - Bird a Day

Mary Heightchew in Charlotte "small town south of Lansing", Michigan is doing Marika Makes - Bird a Day...

Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project as a way to get back to my creativeness. I wasn't doing much of anything creative for years and I felt the need to get back at it.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I am only on day 49 and this project has affected many things in my life,

1. I notice birds everywhere, and have spotted new birds that I have never seen before, such as a rose breasted grosbeak, yellow warbler, and a gray catbird
2. I wake up earlier
3. I wake up happier
4. I am knitting less
5. I have met some wonderful creative and inspiring people on line
6. My middle finger on my left hand has its drawing callous back
7. Dinner isn't always done on time (or at all, sorry hun)
8. I'm spending more money on bird food and art supplies (and less on yarn)
9. I feel a greater sense of fulfillment and joy.
10. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds for me.

See all of Marika's birds HERE.

Ornithoblogical Follow-Up

I've decided to periodically check back in with some folks who have completed their 365 projects...

Anna Raff made 365 birds over the course of 2010 in her Ornithoblogical project...

  I like this first one because there actually was a Hurricane Earl that was supposed to slam into the East coast in September. He kind of puttered out, so this probably wound up being funny only to me.

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? I never thought about how the project would evolve, but that was quite surprising. There was definitely an arc as the year progressed, and the work improved. Somewhere around May (I started Ornithoblogical on January 1, 2010 roughly), I think I hit my stride, and it's real character emerged. It became a blog not just about bird illustrations, but one that involved a lot of word play and puns.

These guys were kind of effortless—meaning, they sort of drew themselves, and I think that shows in the piece. That's often what I'm striving for

In what ways did the project change your life? Probably one of the best skills I gained was in time management. I had made a commitment to do the blog for a year without missing a day, as a way to force myself to draw more. A large part of my time was spent brainstorming to keep ahead of the calendar, and I found I could do that anywhere. I've never been one of those illustrators who regularly keeps a sketchbook, and ideas would interject themselves anywhere—usually somewhere inconvenient—like the shower, which is not a place where I would ever have a sketchbook. I developed some systems. (I also learned about the beauty of the "scheduled post," which made vacations much more plausible.)

This was a complicated idea (for me), and I like it because it pretty much came out the way I saw it in my head.

Now what? Although my initial intention was to finish the blog at the end of 2010, it has continued, but not on a daily basis. I've been on a bit of a hiatus for the last two months, due mostly to the volume of my other work. I guess that makes it a success—I needed a self-promotional tool that included a large body of work to show off my illustration and point of view. And I'm happy to say, it seems to have worked. I'm about to start illustrating a children's book for a publisher who followed my birds for several months.

These last two made it into this year's American Illustration book. Yippee!

See all of Anna's birds HERE.

Daily Bird

Jayne Selwa in Medford, New Jersey, USA is making a Daily Bird...

Why did you decide to do this project? In early March I was poking around in a bookstore and saw Noah's book 365… I was immediately taken with the idea, and decided right then that I would do a 365 project. That’s really it – I loved the idea, and said “I’m in!” I decided on birds for my theme because I love birds, and they currently play a significant part in my life. I decided to start my project on the Spring Equinox because it is such a good time for beginnings.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Committing to make something every day has really, in a very short amount of time, helped me push through a bit of an artistic block. By making something every day, I don’t have time to worry about whether it’s “good enough”. I only have time to make it, photograph/scan it, post it, and journal it. It’s true, we all know this but forget: it doesn’t matter if our creative output is “good enough”. What matters is that we are working, creating, consistently.

See all of Jayne's birds HERE.

The 365 Day Bird Project

Peggy Turchette in Boulder, Colorado is doing The 365 Day Bird Project...

Why did I decide to do this project?  I am a freelance illustrator, and I was having such terrible burnout from working endlessly on assignment to other people's specs under truly insane deadlines, that I was starting to hate being an artist.   I really needed to do SOMETHING to reacquaint myself with the fun part of being an artist.  Also, I'd just moved, and for the first time had a real studio where I could make a big mess and not have to pick everything up at the end of the day.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life?  First, I am having way too much fun.  Second, I'm no longer making any money (good thing I'm also a dog-sitter).  Third, I am trying all kinds of mediums that I would have never worked in, since everybody hired me for just one particular style.  Fourth, I am thinking of myself in a whole new way, not as a "hired brush", but as a very interesting, creative, fun person.  Fifth, I have no social life, because I take care of dogs all day and make a bird every night.  (Actually, I didn't have a social life before, either, so that hasn't changed.

See all of Peggy's birds HERE

Consider The Birds

Victoria Istvan in Rising Sun, Maryland is making a bird a day in Consider the Birds. She says, "After changing my mind on the second day of my original plan for this project, I decided to stick with making a bird a day. Initially, my decision to do this was sheer laziness (it was WAY easier than my original plan), but I have found that I can attach a lot of meaning to it now. Birds are really symbolic of the place I'm at in life right now, breaking free from some very difficult situations, and finding my wings again. Also, my name for this project - Consider the birds- is from a verse in the Bible, where Jesus talks about not worrying, and that is something I am really working on right now. So the bird theme really is perfect for me."

Why did you decide to do this project? I came across an article on etsy about this project last week, and posted it on facebook, saying "I want to try this." Then a couple friends commented on it, and I thought 'maybe I really should try it!' So I did. It really will help me to accomplish two of the goals I have set for myself for this year- one being to stay consistent with something, and the other to get creative again.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I've only been doing it for a week so far, but already I can see how it's affecting me. I am constantly thinking of new ideas for the project, all day long. I am looking at things in a new way, wondering how I can incorporate ordinary items I come across into my creations. It's been really fun and exciting so far. Every morning when I wake up I'm already thinking about what I will make for the day.

Consider all of Victoria's birds on her site HERE.

Ornithoblogical

NYC-based illustrator Anna Raff decided to create a bird image every day for a year on her Ornithoblogical site...

See all of Anna's lovely birds on her site HERE.