Heart of the Day

Anette Bäck of Skövde, Sweden is creating one heart daily in 2019 for her project Heart of the Day...

Why did you decide to do this project? A few years ago I got the book 365: A Daily Creative Journal by Noah Scalin from a dear friend. A perfect opportunity for me to challenge my creativity. In my professional life I am the head of an IT department, which is a fulfilling and challenging job in many ways and I think I'm pretty good at it. But it isn't the most creative job.

I wanted to start the project on January 1st. But... for several years I had forgotten it, but not this year. This year I started my project. I am going to continue as long as it is challenging and fun. Hopefully I will reach the finish line at December 31st. But if the "want feeling" is replaced with a "must feeling" I have promised myself to change the plan. I don't need any more musts in my life!

I chose hearts as my project for two reasons:
1. It's quite a simple shape
2. I associate it with positive feeling and hope that it will help me carry on if (or rather when) the inspiration comes. 

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I have just started my project and so far I have learned that I can't bring myself to destroy books. This project is also teaching me to settle with "good enough". Normally, I am kind of a "good girl type" that always wants to do the best (preferably to perfection), but the time restraint when creating one heart every day while working and taking care of everyday stuff doesn’t leave room for perfection. It is a really valuable experience for me.See all of Anette's project on Instagram at @heartoftheday and on her site HERE

The #griefheart Project

Anne Moss Rogers is Richmond, Virginia is creating The #griefheart project.

Why did you decide to do this project? On April 11, 2016, I started posting a heart a day to help me heal on my grief journey since my son Charles’ suicide June 5, 2015. He was 20. 

The purpose? To give suicide loss survivors like me permission to remember a loved one that died by suicide. The #griefhearts represent the state of my heart in the grief journey, a memory of my son, honor another who died by suicide, show support from others or makes a point for the purpose of suicide awareness. Others are encouraged to be part of the project and I have published guidelines. 

It’s about all of us telling our stories and allowing us to share memories of our loved ones that died by suicide. This has never been encouraged. We are allowed to speak their names without whispering, share our memories without shame or judgment and honor our own grief journey.

Learning to live without the person that was my purpose is probably the hardest part of my grief journey. After my son died, my creativity did, too. I wanted a project that honored his memory, opened up conversation about suicide because it saves lives and rekindle my own creativity to remind me that I am alive and have a purpose. I saw Noah speak at a local event about his Skull-A-Day project and it hit me that day what I needed to do. 

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I have discovered so many things about others and myself. I didn’t expect the outpouring of support. I didn’t expect that others would want to honor their loved ones with a #griefheart. I didn’t expect young adults to write me and thank me for bringing attention to a topic that is often swept under the rug and ignored.

I have learned to accept help and support with grace. I have learned to accept that some days are good and some are still very hard. I have connected with others who have lost a loved one by suicide or otherwise. I have learned that I’m not always the captain of this journey.

And yes, it has rekindled my creativity. But it’s done so much more than that.

Since I started it, I have been able to complete a school program of suicide prevention for schools that is unlike any other out there. Piloting in Virginia soon.

See all of Anne's #griefhearts HERE. 

Sanne's Hearts Project

Sanne Swinkels in Helmond, The Netherlands is doing a Hearts Project...

Why did you decide to do this project? It was february this year when I decided to do something funny. Back than, I hadn't even heard of this phenomenon of 365 days projects. I just wanted to do something a whole year long, something that kept me creative. It was actually february 14, and what fits better than a heart on Valentines day? Moreover, I've loved the shape of a heart my entire life, so that's wasn't difficult. That evening I made my first picture and since than I've made more than 180 pics.

How had doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project has brought me so much interesting insights, for example that when you ask people for something, they love to give you that. But you do have to ask for it! Because otherwise they won't recognize your need. Because I ran out of hearts the second month, I asked my familiy and friends to help me with collecting these hearts. The result? Bags full of hearts, you can't even imagine! It took a while for everyone around me to get used to it, but nowadays I still receive postcards with hearts and even more bags of familiy and friends. Even strangers send me messages, for example some Dutch artist Sietske Ridders who had made a heart on her own window and sent me some material to make my own hart on my own window. How sweet! I also got asked for an interview on the local television show, and that call for hearts lead to so many postcards and mail, that's really amazing. 

See all of Sanne's hearts HERE.

She's also been collecting other people's 365 projects and sharing them on her site as well! Check em out HERE and see a short video she's made (in Dutch) about them HERE.