pencil // paper // photo

Maša Kepic and Asia Werbel in Brighton, Stratford-Upon-Avon & London, England are creating a joint 365 project they call pencil // paper // photo...

Why did you decide to do this project? We decided to do it as a discipline alongside our creative practices, & to make it a joint project for support!

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project requires discipline, organisation & co-operation ( especially as we both have kids & work freelance! ). We're broadcasting it across social media, & using it as a platform for experimentation. It's early days yet, day 11 as I write this, but the feedback has been great so far. Asia is off to shoot London Fashion Week soon, so I'm looking forward to seeing her posts from there! As for myself, I'm enjoying the almost instant results of a daily drawing archive, compared with the slower process of painting.

We're looking forward to making a stop frame animation of all our posts for Vimeo in 2013!

See all of Maša's drawings & Asia's photos HERE.

Everyday Objects

Jason Taylor in Derbyshire, England is making a project he calls Everyday Objects...

Why did you decide to do this project? A few reasons I guess…A way of motivating me, I'm turning 40 this year so it might make this year a bit more special and take my mind off it. Also I like the idea of an new object/thing being tied to that day or even moment…and does my state of mind effect what kind of object I make??

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It's in the back of mind all the time… and i can get a bit a stressed if I leave it too late and then panic, but this means I make something a bit mad! which is good i think…also putting it out there on a blog and Facebook means i feel more pressure and a bigger fear of failure. Although when i switch into auto mode and just play put something together and it is was it is - the object of the day. Also I never said it would be functional but I am trying to use familiar everyday objects.

See all of Jason's objects HERE.

Daily Creative by gstar

Geneviève Daigle AKA gstar in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is using my book to make a project called Daily Creative by gstar...

Why did you decide to do this project? I bought the book over 1.5 years ago in an attempt to inject some creativity in my life, but didn't start it. I'm a graphic designer, yet sometimes feel like the constraints imposed on me by clients are keeping me from really expressing myself. I felt stuck in a rut of sorts. I came across the book on January 1 of this year and thought it was time to give the project a go.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I'm currently 33 days in, and it's been great so far. I'm definitely doing more fun creative things and am looking forward to be challenged every day. I was also blown away by the feedback by friends and family over my blog. I never expected this much positive support.

See all of Geneviéve's creativity on display HERE.

Love One Another

Cathryn in Pennsylvania is doing a project she calls Love One Another. 

She explains, "Every day I will be making something new based on John 13: 34-35 in which Jesus instructed His disciples to love one another as He has loved them.  This project is inspired by other 365 projects including Noah Scalin's famous Skull-A-Day project and his book 365: A Daily Creativity Journal.  It is also a response to all the negative messages we are bombarded with daily and all the cruelty constantly reported in the news.  Some of my goals include spreading the Good News, encouraging people to be kind to each other, possibly generating funds for a worthy cause, and practicing photography, drawing, painting, and other media."

Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project because I became tired of watching the news and hearing about all the awful things people are doing to each other.  The world would be a much better place if people would just take a moment to be nice to each other.   By making a project with this message and post it every day, I hope to inspire people to “love one another.”  It’s also an opportunity to experiment with different media and techniques, practice drawing, illustration, painting, photography, and mixed media.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Making something with this message written on it or illustrating it has caused me to have to think about it more.    For the projects and for my blog posts, I have to keep thinking of kind things we can do every day.  I hope it will also help me “find myself” artistically and improve my skills.

See all of Cathryn's creations HERE.

Fan-A-Day

Gina AKA Whee! Gina! in Houston, Texas is making a Fan-a-Day!...

Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project after I had started a blog.  I didn't know how to, so I browsed randomly through blogs until I found some which were interesting to me.  Somehow I stumbled upon the 365 project.  I had been changing my Facebook profile picture every day with a picture of a nun....Nun-A-Day.....for no particular reason, and I thought,  this is quite similar, but a lot more creative. As I had a shop (on Etsy) selling painted fans, fans seemed obvious.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I was bored with the Etsy shop and the fans were getting stale.I had wanted to expand the fan making into more creative techniques and materials but I didn't have a venue to show them. This is it! At once, I became enthusiastic again, I woke up with an idea every morning and could hardly wait to jump out of bed and get started.  I think about it all the time. I have even dreamed some of them. The project has reawakened my enthusiasm and encouraged me in my blogging as well. It has made me want to learn more about using the computer, and introduced me to online friends. Sort of like penpals, but with the immediacy of new messages every day. I have bought some cool greetings cards from Marika Makes, who made a Bird A Day, and learned how to use translation tools so that I can follow several bloggers in Germany and the Netherlands. I never expected this to lead to learning Dutch!

I have done 6 months now, and am very pleased with the whole process, all the way from new ideas to stolen ideas to desperation last-minute fans. Sometimes I get the nicest comments from the most (to me)  last-ditch efforts. I am already thinking ahead to what I will do when I have finished the year of  fans.

See all of Gina's fans HERE.  

Sun A Day Follow-Up

I'm periodically checking back in with some folks who have completed their 365 projects...

Tara Raymo made a Sun A Day for every day of 2011...

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? The biggest lesson I learned is that not everything has to be exactly perfect. I realized that when I didn’t care for something that I created, I would then look back on it and actually think it wasn’t that bad. I learned to just enjoy the moment of creating something. Through the project I found that I enjoy carving and need to learn more about the different techniques.

In what ways did the project change your life? I lost touch with my artistic side many years ago, so the biggest change was that I realized how much I had lost. I am starting to feel more myself now that I am getting back into my art. I am a graphic artist for a children’s nonfiction book publisher, and my project has helped me become more creative at work.

Now what? Right now I am taking January to organize my Sun A Day project. I want to start sketching, learning new techniques and I want to start showing off my Digital Designs. I plan to start posting some kind of art or project that I am working on at least once a week, hopefully starting in February.

Read her original 365 interview HERE.

See all of her suns HERE.

A Dalek Year

Walt Keegan in Spotswood, New Jersey is spending a year building a Dalek! He explains, "For the past 7 years I have been building props for a Halloween Haunted House party that I do every year in my basement. Over that time I have taught myself a bunch of skills on how to build relatively low cost props. As part of a challenge to do something creative for 365 days, I decided to use it to build a full-sized Dalek from Doctor Who - (actually it looks like there may be 2 of them - one based on cardboard and one much more sturdy made of wood) something that I have called A Dalek Year."

Why did you decide to do this project? Last year I build the most involved and detailed props for a Halloween (We did an Alien movie theme) and as I start to run out of time, I fall back on processes and skills that I already know instead of learning new skills. I figured if I plan to give myself a year to build something big, I can ensure that I have the time to challenge my skill sets and learn new ones.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? While I just started this two weeks ago I have already tried 3 new paper mache recipes and tested a few different techniques. Ensuring that I do "something" on this project each day and account for it has also made me more responsible to do something creative everyday - and give myself time to try and make mistakes. I work in a corporate job where I really can't flex my creative muscles and need an outlet - and this has helped. I'll have more updates on how things change as I get deeper into the project.

Watch Walt's Dalek making progress HERE. 

365 words a day for 365 days

Sarah Harris in Southern California is writing 365 words a day for 365 days . She explains that it's about "Sharing my experiences from any point of my life (and life around me), but with mid-life job (since I'm presently unemployed) and life transitions, being a single parent, trying to redefine myself to hopefully bring along folks who want to have a friend to go through their own stuff with, or just help have a positive impact on life in general and make people feel better in the moment."

Why did you decide to do this project? When I ask myself the question: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? the answer is always "Write" but I was too intimidated to work on a large novel, or submit things to magazines or e-zines, even just web content jobs without more of a portfolio.  This gives me the discipline to write daily, in small daily amount so it's not too big a bite to take, plus share my experience with others.  I envision it as a daily cup of joe with friends!


How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? So far, 28 days, it's been an immediate shift.  I look forward to it every day, I enjoy thinking about my topic - and photos - every day, writing it every night. I have also immensely enjoyed the steps to try to drive traffic to one's blog and am working on different things and learning a TON about social media so as a bonus, I'm receiving a new great skill set to make me more employable!
 
Read all of Sarah's words HERE. 

A Year of Billy Joel

Will Stegemann in Los Angeles, CA is spending a year listening to every song ever released by his least favorite musician Billy Joel! He calls it a Year of Billy Joel...

Why did you decide to do this project? For years I have written Billy Joel off as a middle of the road singer songwriter who did not deserve to be taken seriously. However I made this judgment without listening to all of his music. Over the years many people have told me I should look deeper into his music so I'm giving it a try.


How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It's important to note one thing about this: I'm doing this seriously. It would be easy to take cheap shots at someone I haven't taken seriously but that's lazy and accomplishes nothing. I've really been giving this music a chance and three positives have come from it already.

1. I am writing something every day, this is always a plus for me.
2. I'm discovering that there are some hidden gems of songs
3. I've realized that there are other artists and musicians I have overlooked and I have begun to give them the same consideration.

On top of all that I get emails from people who tell me about their favorite songs and share their experiences with Billy Joel songs. It's been a lot of fun.

Read about all of Will's Billy Joel experiences HERE.

Get Unstuck in 30 Seconds with Terry Border

Terry Border the brilliantly twisted mind behind Bent Objects share how he gets unstuck in 30 seconds...

You can find more advice from Terry in my new book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio!

And be sure to also watch the Unstuck videos from Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd, Young House Love's John & Sherry, storyteller Slash Coleman, artist Matt Lively, Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza, artist kHyal™, and Prophet's Andy Stefanovich as well!

365 Days of "Love"

Rebecca Borowski in Rimrock, Arizona making 365 days of "Love"...

Why did you decide to do this project? My initial inspiration was the book, Skulls, by Noah Scalin. I loved the range of mediums, brilliant creativity and beautiful photographs! Secondly, I felt the need to consciously commit to embracing my creative energy, instead of wasting it every day. When I asked myself 'what do I want to do every day for a year?’ my first answer was 'love'. (If there's one thing I've learned in life, it’s that the first answer is usually the right answer.)

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? So far, this project has affected my life in several unexpected ways.  Largely, because I made the decision to do it publicly (via blog), it forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I'm naturally terrified to "put myself out there", and in doing so, I feel more alive, more authentic. It makes me strive for excellence instead of falling back on mediocrity. Doing my best work certainly varies from day to day - some days my best is better than the prior day. Acknowledging this helps me grow as an artist, crafter and as a person.

A yearlong commitment forces me to focus character building. Not only am I honing my resourcefulness and creativity, but also building dedication, determination, persistence, reliability and courageousness. 

Quite by accident I fell into dedicating my daily projects to particular people. Doing so makes me mindful of showing appreciation, gratitude and love. (Not to be mooshy, but I think this is very important!)

Lastly, this project affects my entire family. The kids get involved; my husband gets home and can't wait to see what I did that day. Everyone gets involved with throwing ideas out on the table, "Hey, this would be great for a project!" And my 5 year old daughter now knows how to spell love correctly. :)

See all of Rebecca's "love"s HERE.

Patsy's Family History

Patsy Atwood Reese in Fort Worth, Texas is spending a year sharing about her family history starting in the 19th century...

Why did you decide to do this project? I have hundreds of family letters and some very old pictures, even tintypes.

I have been collecting photos and artifacts (mostly ephemera) from both sides of my family for decades.  To me as a history major it is fascinating, on many different levels. I was raised by a large family in my father's home town in central Texas. Every aunt, uncle, and cousin has a great story (I think.) So do my grandparents and great-grandparents (Civil War veterans, for example, on my father's side.)

For many many years I have been promising myself I would put this all in a book, to give to my offspring, and other family members as well. I am 73 now, and I can't take it with me!!

Dragging stuff around, trying to take care of it, losing some of it in a flood around 1990, I read your piece and realized this was my answer. In 366 days I will be able to put it all out there, for family as well as interested friends, to  enjoy and/or save for themselves.  I have digitized almost everything except textiles, which are very few, and will be photographed.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I find I look forward to every post, sometimes even setting some up in advance.  I just don't want to miss a single day. And there is so much more that I have to tell.

It has been great to realize that after a year I will likely be near my goal. If I print all the blog entries, my long-awaited book will be a reality!!! I have been thanked on Facebook by several people already.

I have heard from family and extended family about this, a few wanting to contribute, or comment, but not many.  Perhaps as time goes by more folks will join in. My four grandchildren are certainly interested. and  I already have two great-grandchildren. Some of my life will  seem very strange to them, as will the lives of my parents and grandparents.

My two daughters have put me off every time I have tried to get us together for digitizing and scrapbooking.  Now that this project is started, they have actually arranged for us to spend a weekend in March together, sharing and documenting what we can about ourselves, our forebears, and our loved ones.

Read Patsy's family history HERE. 

Sun Today

Frances Lewis in Adelaide, South Australia is spending a year making Sun Today...     

Why did you decide to do this project? I picked up Noah’s 365: A Daily Creativity Journal while passing through a bookshop on a hot sunny summer’s day at the end of 2011. So I chose sun-inspired projects because Adelaide was having a minor heat-wave at the time, the sun was very much in everyone's thoughts, the bookshop was a cool place to escape from the heat. Also the sun would be an easy way to go – basically a circle therefore easily represented, dressed-up or kept simple depending on how I feel on the day or the time available I liked that Noah and others in his book recommended keeping the initial idea simple because I’m doing this project for fun and to try different ways of working around a basic idea. As a bonus it’s been a really great introduction to other people’s work through their 365 projects, getting inspired, having moments of empathy and having a laugh. In particular I’ve been enjoying Graeme McNee’s Minimal Comics, Anja Brunt’s 365 Faces, Gertie Jaquet’s A Stamp a Day and of course Tara Raymo’s 2011 Sun a Day.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project’s giving me an opportunity to explore digital graphic media which is like making new friends – so far Illustrator and ArtRage, they’ve been very interesting and entertaining but sometimes not going how I’d expect. Illustrator seems to want to quantify everything whereas ArtRage seems to be more for merrily splashing colours about. I’ve dug out some old techniques and materials which is like visiting old friends – origami, hand-cut rubber stamps, i-cord knits. I’m enjoying that a simple design can be conceived as an idea, the materials being something already around the house or office, chopped up and/or assembled, photographed, dismantled and/or eaten and the design posted on the blog, sometimes all in under half an hour with no clutter remaining. Other projects have taken a week or two to complete and being part of the sun-inspired 365 project has helped them to get finished instead of being set aside while I cast-on something fabulously new. My friends have liked the sun-inspired items they've received. As someone who usually prefers reds and blues the sun-inspired project has brought more yellow and orange into my projects, though some of the suns are red, blue and/or green. I felt a bit shy about blogging which I’ve not done before - but hopefully some of my creations will entertain or inspire someone else along the way.

See all of Frances's suns HERE.

daily heART Follow-Up

I'm periodically checking back in with some folks who have completed their 365 projects...

Ellen Petti finished her yearlong daily heART project on January 8th, 2012...

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project?  I learned that my imagination could be stretched far beyond what I knew; how much power and possibility is in the imagination.  I also discovered that what I can visualize I can usually make happen.  I spent a lot of time thinking of new mediums or techniques to use and was mostly able to pull off a new heart along those lines.  I already knew I like detail work but doing this project really reinforced that awareness, as well as reminded me that I can be overly perfectionistic.  I had to learn to let go of that tendency and allow myself to have days when the heart just got done, good or bad.   I found I loved looking at some random thing and asking the question, "how can I make a heart out of that?" and facing the challenge of taking everyday, normal or quirky objects and mediums and manipulating them into hearts.

 
In what ways did the project change your life?  I now have more confidence in my ability to create, and to be original.  This project encouraged me to trust my instincts and believe in myself.  
 

Now what?  Publish a book of hearts!

Read Ellen's original 365 interview HERE.

See all of Ellen's hearts HERE (she started the blog after her project began, so they're still being posted daily).