The 100 Days Project

The 100 Days Project is over for another year.  This year I had a big stretch where I was as the uggh stage of my project; the 'have to push through' stage.  There was also the 'this is awesome!' stage; the 'I didn't know I could do that' stage; the 'what the heck do I do today?' stage; and the 'I haven't done anything for ages so now I need to do three in one day' stage.

I started the 100 days project again this year after having a very satisfying experience with last year's.  I didn't get all my days done last year, but I felt like I had really achieved something personally with my art.  My theme had been 100 days of faces and I thought I might get to the stage where I was comfortable with drawing faces and using them in my quilts.  I did get really comfortable with faces and I felt I was even reaching a point where I could narrow in on my style - I felt this was a pretty big accomplishment.

So this year I was really excited to get going on another 100.  I chose 100 days of scissors, wanting to see if I could find my voice with free hand paper cutting, with the hope that I could transfer this to my fabric cutting later.

And I have had several stretches of days where I've really thought I had cracked something.  There was a stretch when I was doing branches, I loved almost every one of them, but then I felt I couldn't keep going with them because I thought I'd exhaust myself with them on paper without ever getting them into fabric.  Was that a legitimate worry?

I spent a span of days trying to find a symbol that worked for me.  That was after seeing Dinner at Eight artists share their work that was accepted for a themed show 'Personal Iconography: Graffiti on Cloth', and wondering if I had any particular personal symbols that I could incorporate into more of my work.  Turns out I don't think I do...

So I pushed through and just kept turning up, because that is what it's all about.  Turn up, do the work, form the habits, see what happens.  Sometimes I'd cheat though, and I'd do several days in one go, which helped me work in a kind of series with whatever subject I'd picked.

But mostly I just kept trudging on.  And now we have reached the end of the process.  I'll let you in on a little secret though: I haven't done day 100.... I bought two sketchbooks in the beginning - a black one with 40 pages and a white one with 60.  I must have ripped out a page, or the manufacturers were telling fibs because at day 99 I ran out of pages!  Somehow I just can't bring myself to work on any other surface!

Overall it doesn't feel quite as satisfying as last year - the experience was positive, there are pieces of work that I like and that I want to explore more, but I guess I just don't feel like I reached the same stage as I did last year.

But that's ok, I'll be back for next year's 100 days, because the process teaches you so much, even if you don't reach the creative levels you hoped for.  And now, looking at the photographs of all the work laid out end to end, I'm proud of myself.  That's a good feeling.  I'll be back for a second helping next year.

Here's what day 99 looked like:

And here's the whole project in lots of 20 (you don't see the whole pictures, just thumbnails, and sometimes oddly cropped):

100 Days Project 2017

The 22 May was the first day of the NZ 100 Days Project.  Except it's not just NZ, there are plenty of people from around the world taking part too.  I did it last year and I'm doing it again.  This time with a side-kick, my own built-in accountability partner, my daughter.

We're both working on the idea of paper cutting.  I'm inspired by Matisse mainly, and trying to explore whether I can find my 'voice' or my 'hand' in free-hand paper cutting using scissors.  You can read more about my motivations and how I decided on my project here.

Day One is always exciting.  Will my idea work?  Will it look ok?  Am I going to come to loathe this after 100 days...or after 20?

But so far, so good.

I had absolutely no idea what my scissors would cut, but I always do gravitate towards birds.  So it wasn't much surprise when my finished work looked like this:

Day One was a beautiful day, sitting in the sun with my daughter, discovering with paper and scissors.  It was quick and easy because I'd set myself up for success.  Having a project that is quite specific helps (less choices to make), having a set size (I've decided to use sketchbook pages as my base), and having all the tools I need in one place (we've made a pack with card, scissors, zip-lock bags for small leftovers, storage for finished words and a glue stick) all contributed.  Day Two?  Well, that's today, so we'll see!

If you want to follow along with us, my project is:  https://100daysproject.co.nz/projects/100-Days-2017/charlotte-scott-115
My daughter's project is: https://100daysproject.co.nz/projects/100-Days-2017/olivia-114

I'll also post now and again to Instagram, you can find my feed by clicking on the Instagram icon at the top left of this page.

100 Days Project 2017 - Creative Practice

Last year I took part in the 100 days creative practice challenge.  I found it immensely rewarding.  Frustrating and hard sometimes, but overall I found my art going places I hadn't foreseen and finding ideas I hadn't thought of and possibilities I hadn't discovered.  (You can find my project here.)

So I'm doing it again this year.  It's running earlier, from May till August, which suits me better.  And my daughter is really keen to take part, so I have an accountability partner already!

I learnt a few things last year:

• Keep it fairly small, broad possibilities are sometimes just as paralysing as narrow ones.
• Think about a standard format in case you want to present your work as a whole in a 100 days show.
• Have something new and shiny to work with to motivate you! (Last year mine was a brand new sketch book.)

And I've been thinking a lot about what I want to explore and how.

Last year was 100 days of faces.  I had never felt very comfortable drawing faces or including them in my work.  I'm much more comfortable with them now, but I still don't really include them in my work, so my first idea was to explore adding faces into my quilts.

But that's awfully broad.

So then I started thinking about how I work, what techniques I already use and what techniques I'd like to explore or develop.  100 days of printing was quite appealing.  But it's not very transportable and really does mean that I have to be quite prepared for each day's work.  My life doesn't always run like that...

I've ended up with 100 days of scissors.  A few things lead me to this.  I had been thinking about how I work with a lot of silhouettes in my work and I use scissors constantly.  Then when Matisse and his large paper cut-outs was mentioned on the AQ education seminar that I just went to (more on that later), ideas started to fall into place.  Matisse's 'hand' was very evident in his work, he was sketching with card, using the cut-outs to play with layout and test colour and form.  I do the same with my fabric cut outs, but I'm a lot more 'staid' in my cutting out.  I draw first and cut on the line.  So what will happen if I try and develop my 'hand' by free-hand cutting?  What sort of shapes and forms will appear?  Will you be able to see my voice and style?

So I've been researching Matisse and his gouaches decoupes and I've remembered that I've followed Raymond Saa on Instagram for a while (have I subconsciously been thinking about this longer than I know?) and I found Claire Brewster as inspiration too.  I'm going to keep thinking and researching, but when it gets close to May 22, start day, I'm going to put the books away, stop looking at other's work, and see where my scissors will take me.

My new 100 days project link is here (I think it's working).  I'm charlottewaves (my daughter is oliviawaves, she wanted matching user names and I'm indulging her while she's young enough to still want to be like me).

My shiny new things to add motivation?  A black paged sketchbook, a stack of coloured card and some brand new, very sharp, dedicated to paper, scissors.

Will you be doing the 100 days challenge this year?  And if you are, what's your project going to be?

Edited to add:  Here's the link if you want to sign up http://100daysproject.co.nz click the register button in the top right corner.

100 Days Project 10%

I wrote recently about starting a 100 Days Project.  Luckily there was a group and a website and someone had done all the thinking and all I had to do was sign up and join in.  We are now onto our tenth day, which means we are a 10% through the process.  Put another way, I've got 90% more to do!

So how am I feeling about it?  I wrote a little summary of how I've been feeling day to day.  I'm wondering how I'll feel at day 50.

Day One - nervous and excited, so much to live up to!
Day Two - well that was easy, too easy perhaps?
Day Three - this isn't so bad, but am I getting anywhere?
Day Four - Ick, what a stuff up, now I'm nervous again.
Day Five - I think I'm onto something.
Day Six - I really like this.
Day Seven - I really LOVE this.
Day Eight - I've got so many ideas, I'm bubbling over!
Day Nine - how do I work on all these ideas?!

The photo above was day five.  That was a spread in my sketchbook with a silhouette cut from the edge of one page so it appeared on two page spreads.  It's the day that I felt I had a little breakthrough.

And today is Day Ten.  Today I'm wondering how I can spread out my ideas a little.  Can I work on the same face or quilt two days in a row?  Will I be cheating if I do that?  I've got so many ideas but some I want to work on more deeply than others.

Above is the spread of all my days so far.  Day four was a scary one, I felt like hiding it, but that wouldn't contribute to my process, so there it is in all its glory!

I'll share more in another while, but in the meantime if you want to follow my progress, this is the link to my project: http://100daysproject.co.nz/projects/100-days-2016/charlotte-scott-700

100 Days Project

A creative practice project is something creative done regularly with a certain intent- a journal quilt every month, a zentangle per day, you've probably seen or read examples of them as they seem pretty popular around the blogosphere in recent years.

"Show up, show up, show up and after a while the muse shows up, too."   

-  Isabel Allende, Author. 

I've thought about creative practice projects before.  Like way back in May 2015.  And I guess I have been doing one in a loose way with my little colour compositions, but that particular project doesn't have accountability, or the support of being part of a bigger group.

An artist friend introduced me to the 100 Days Project recently.  She has participated before and found that it was enriching, challenging, frustrating, confronting and most of all, worthwhile.  (Find her work here).  The 100 Days Project in New Zealand started in 2011 and has been running annually since.  Except for last year - I don't know what happened there.  There is a website where you sign up, create a profile, and then when the project starts, you record your efforts there every day.

"The project gives anyone (young & old, artist and non-artist) a framework and the permission to be creative. It challenges you to dig deep into your creative reserves, to rely on your readiness to work in order to achieve creative breakthrough."   

- 100 Day Project, NZ. 

I signed up yesterday.  The project starts on August 24th and you have until the 20th to join up.  I'm nervous and excited because I decided to do something that will challenge me and, hopefully, enrich my textile art in a new way.

I've called my project 'Facing Up' and here's how I described it:

"I'm a textile artist, afraid of faces. So here comes 100 faces, in textiles or not, with the intent of 'facing' my fear."

This is a detail from a quilt about Ranginui and Papatuanuku (sky father and earth mother).  I think it's the only time I've included faces in a quilt.

The great thing about this is that my stitch and bitch group that I run through the studio and gallery is taking part too.  Not all of us, but at least four others.  When it gets hard and when we get stuck, we'll have someone to commiserate with.  When we feel the exhilaration of breakthrough and satisfaction of completion, we'll have someone to celebrate with.

And at the end of it all, I happen to own a gallery where we can have a 100 Days Project exhibition!

If you did a hundred days project, what would it be?

If you want to follow along with me, I'll be posting to Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag of #100DaysOfFaces and I'll probably post here in a digest form with several days all at once, along with my thoughts about the process.

Monday Musing 25 May 2015

Monday Musings

I think my blog is lacking a little bit in content.  I know I've said that before, but I still don't think I've remedied it.  So I'm thinking (musing, hence the title, but I like alliteration) that I should instigate a schedule of weekly posts with some sort of regular weekly content. 

I guess I've been musing about what I want to use my blog for.  This is related to my consolidation process that I'm going through.  It's nice to have a record about what I've been up to.  And I like that it gives me a venue to publicise my work and my classes.  But now that my kids are getting older I don't write much about them, so what else can I put here?  How can I use it to be a better artist?  Yes, the podcast is fun and I'll continue to do that, but is there more that this blog can offer me?  I think so, but I've been trying to work out exactly what that is.

I've been playing with the idea of starting some sort of creative practice project*.  I think one of the ways to keep strengthening my own style is just to make lots of work.  Have you ever read that story about a ceramics tutor who divided her class into two?  One half was to be marked on volume of work produced over the term, the other half had to produce only one single pot and be marked on that.  Guess which half produced the best work by the end of the term? 

 *A creative practice project it something creative done regularly - a journal quilt every month, a zentangle per day, you've probably seen or read examples of them as they seem pretty popular around the blogosphere in recent years.

So yes, I need to produce more work.  How can I use my blog to help me achieve that?  I do post what I'm working on quiltwise, but sometimes there are constraints about what you can publish if you are wanting to enter certain exhibitions.  And large, finished pieces of textile art take a lot of investment in terms of time, who wants to see similar photos of the same quilt week after week?  

So, is there a smaller creative practice project I could do? I've been tempted to join into other people's year long challenges or projects, but just haven't found the right one for me.  Yet I think it would be an enriching experience, a way to push through creative barriers, to do many small acts that add up to something in the end.

Any finished article takes a lot of investment, but what about something unfinished?  I listened to Meighan O'Toole's podcast where she interviewed Jen Hewett, a printmaker who did a 52 prints challenge (she's onto another 12 month long project now because she found her first one so worthwhile) and as I listened, I realised that she was not making finished items, but just committing to making a print per week.  Whether it got into a finished item or not was irrelevant.  A sketch, a print, lots of things come to mind for me, but what I keep coming back to is complex cloth - surface design but in layers so that it becomes complex and almost a piece of art itself.

And then I could tie my creative practice project back into the blog.  Being accountable to myself but also to you, dear readers.  I'd use my blog to muse about the process, I'd set up reminders to blog regularly about what it is I have learnt and by the end of the project I'd not only have a body of work, but I would also have process notes and journals, and ideas and feedback from others.  

I'm going to muse more about this idea for a little while, but thanks for reading my random musings, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on creative practice projects and if you're interested in starting up one too.