Flow: Simplify Your Life

I was interviewed for the recent Simplify Your Life issue of Flow magazine from the Netherlands!

Here's a rough translation:

12. Set yourself achievable goals

Creativity requires action, says Noah Scalin, creative. "Stop thinking and start doing! The creativity is already inside of you, the secret is taking action instead of just thinking about making things. Give yourself small manageable creative goals (i.e. make something that fits in the palm of your hand) and then just do it on a regular schedule (daily? 3 times a week? Once a week?) without judging the outcome. Think of it as exercise for your brain. The more you make, the better you’ll get!"

 

Noah Scalin makes images and photos, he paints, writes and creates illustrations from  paper. Also he created the Skull-A-Day project: see how Noah made a skull every day for a year. "It was such a pure creative expression and I loved that something that at first seemed ridiculous and personal turned out to be so life changing for me and has reached so many people all over the world! " Noah's latest book The Design Activist's Handbook has just appeared. Noah's Skull a Day project can be found on Skulladay.com.

The article also features Darth Buttons image I created for the Star Wars Remix project!

Iens Way

Ineke Jansma in the Netherlands is creating a daily creativity project inspired by my book...

Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do a project since I have read your book about a month ago. It is difficult to find a project doing a whole year. That’s why I decided to start with the ideas in your book.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life?  They bring me out of my comfort zone and I think I learn the most if I do so. I will loose my job about half a month and that’s hard to accept. That’s why I decided to start a project for a year starting on 1 January.

See all of Ineke's projects HERE.

Daily Teacup

Jessica in The Hague, Netherlands is photographing her Daily Teacup...

Why did you decide to do this project?  This project has several goals, by having more goals I think it will be easier to finish my project.

1. To drink more (green) tea because it's healthier.
2. I wanted to improve my photography skills

 

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? In the first place photography skills have improved, it's fun to see the process. Second, I started promoting my project, than it was seen by a organisation of a tea festive who asked me if they could use my pictures (I said yes of course!). It made me start networking more. I also have gotten more into tea itself, now I have a big shelf full of jars with tea and I got interested in making my own tea recipes! I'm almost halfway through my project and I couldn't imagine it would stop so I'm already making plans for the next project.

See all of Jessica's teacups 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. 

A Stamp A Day

Gertie Jaquet in Amsterdam, The Netherlands is making a Stamp a Day.   

Why did you decide to do this project? I'm a children's book illustrator who loves making stamps.
For many years I've been making them, just to relax between my illustration commissions, but I thought time had come to show them to the world. I like the personal challenge of this everyday project.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Many different stamping themes came to me during the year, some better than others, but many of them I would never have discovered without this 365 days project.

All the nice reactions I have got, sheered me up and stimulated me to go on.

I'm doing a lot of stamp carving workshops with people who have seen my blog and want to make their own stamps.

More and more I am using stamps in my illustration work.

Here an example from a flamenco fairy tale picture book I'm working on:

On holidays a 356 project can be a bit tricky, but luckily my daughter showed me how to program blog-post for many days in advance!

See all of Gertie's stamps HERE.

Flow likes 365

Flow magazine from the Netherlands recently interviewed me for an article about daily projects!  I can't actually read it, so hopefully I make sense in Dutch...

 

The article also features interviews with the creators of several other projects that heave been featured on this site including A Granny A Day, 365 Jars, and Peggy Tourchette's 365 Birds.

The magazine itself is really beautiful and features a bunch of cool things inside, including a giant wall chart with 365 ideas and sources of inspiration including a whole bunch of other projects by folks that have been on the site (and many that haven't).

If you can read Dutch I highly recommend getting a copy of this issue for yourself. More info is HERE.