a year of daily art - reflections
I committed to a year of creating a piece of visual art each day for 2021. This is the third time I have completed an art "365". I had previously also done two photography 365s, which is where I got the idea to do an art 365. I finished the 2021 365 on December 31st with the above watercolor painting which I called "Magician".
I explored a number of styles, from ink with watercolor washes
to charcoal
to water color with gauche and ink splashes. I found people really like custom bookmarks, so I made a lot of those.
But I think the style I most enjoyed, and the subjects I most loved doing, were dancers and musicians, captured with minimalist brush work with India ink.
It was a long project. The power of a daily discipline is it forces you to reach for something when you are sure there is nothing there. And yet - some of those days produced the best pieces. You can see the majority of the individual pieces here on Flickr:
I refined my technique for a number of styles. I came to terms with the fact that I probably won't ever be a realist, and toward the end I embraced that. I like the minimal style, the fast, impressionistic approach.
There were many days where I just did not want to do my piece. I did miss three days - all by accident. All of them were because I was traveling and just didn't manage my time, or was otherwise intensely busy. I did catch-up pieces in the days following. Forcing yourself to follow through, day after day, is character building. I think this is a good project to do every few years.
One of the things I realized a few months into the project was that it was taking more time to do than art was a priority in my life. I like art, and I am happy that I have spent several years working on my skills, but it is not a primary part of my identity. That was an important take-away for me. If you are going to invest this much effort into something, it should be important. There are things I could have been doing every day that would have contributed more directly to some of my larger goals.
I've decided to try to do one piece of art each week for 2022. That's an appropriate amount of effort and more accurately reflects where art fits into my personal priorities. I've also set a goal of taking a weekly photo. I've also set weekly goals for reading and fitness. Overall, I have more goals, but they are more easily accomplished. They are also more in line with my priorities. I'll share more about that in a later post. I am also going to try to post more! While also keeping up RWL and HLF.
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