2009 Reflections - Part One

So, while I am still getting my house in order, and tying up loose ends, I thought I would take a moment to reflect back on my Artwork-A-Day project in 2009.

I am now 2 weeks into January 2010 and I feel like I have had enough time to formulate some thoughts on what was hardest, easiest, and what I learned during this challenge. I'm sure there will be more thoughts to come in future.

One thing I have to do first is to make a confession. While this is very hard for me to admit (and only because I am my own worst critic), my 365 day project ended after 273 days. I'm sure no one will really care that I didn't actually do 365 pieces of artwork, but it still took me a long time to come to terms with this. I was really hung up on that number. The number was what was driving me forward, and it was important. Its interesting how an idea that was of my own creation could hold such power over me.

After the month of September I had to take a step back from the project and give myself permission to take a break. I had fallen behind over the course of the year (you know, life and all that) and during this autumn month I played a gruesome game of catch up. I was honestly creating three pieces of work a day at one point, and when September was done, I was done. It was a grueling task and I was creatively exhausted. I was all caught up, but I now felt like I had "been there and done that". I was ready for something new and different.

This is the difficult part. In order to create a vast amount of work you need to set yourself some limits, and some guidelines that work within your abilities. I knew that for me to create a work of art a day the size needed to be small. That is what I had time to create within, so all my drawings were ATC size (2.5x3.5inches) and all my canvas's were either 4x6 or 5x7 inches. This was also dictated by what I could afford to spend on materials. Let me tell you, it becomes a little tedious painting within a 5x7 space day, after day, after day.

What I really craved was a larger format! Gasp ... the variety of different sized canvas's! What a dream.

I also craved the ability to spend more than one day on a piece. Maybe a whole week! What a thought!

I did still make art for the last three months of 2009, but these pieces were farther apart, more labour intensive (in fact I'm still putting finishing touches on them ;] ), and challenged me in a different way. The "Lucky" Series for instance was what I worked on in November and December. Christmas was coming so I switched gears and made felt ornaments, and folded cranes for decorations. I think I made 42 paper cranes, and 24 felt ornaments. They were completely different and a bit of a novelty at that point. Okay, if I wasn't such a task master I would say "Hey, those could be one-a-day's! They were a creation.", but even though I admit that I could have included them in the project, I'm not going to. I guess I don't feel they were artistic enough. It was after all an "art-a-day", not a "craft-a-day".

At the end of the year I also did something kind of strange. I ended up back where I had started. In January of 2009 I worked on my Stone Icon series for an exhibit in February. At the end of the year, in December, I began to once again create pieces for this series. More Icons, big and small. I didn't really think about it, I just painted what I enjoyed. It was a true Full Circle kind of thing.

I'm not sure how many pieces of art I did in 2009, I haven't tallied them all up yet. I do know that I did more than 273, and less that 365.

More thoughts to be continued in Part Two .... forthcoming.