#The100DayProject - week one
In January, my friend Lee McCraw-Leavitt told me about a challenge she’s done for the past few years called #The100DayProject. My ears perked up as she explained the premise: choose a creative project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process on your social accounts using the hashtag #The100DayProject.
It’s been a goal of mine to get more visible with my creative projects, and it felt like a universal nudge to get in the habit of sharing for 100 days straight. It felt daunting and scary, too.
I’m creative most days, but not always in traditional art. So, my challenge, as I’ve committed to for myself, is to get visible by sharing my creations for 100 days. Some of my shares will be from the archives, and some will be new. Sometimes I might share a completed project or a work in progress. Some days I imagine, I’ll share something I’ve cooked or done in the garden or house.
After the first week of sharing, I heard some requests to see more about my process and some of the behind-the-scenes and in-progress works - my blog seemed like the perfect place!
Day one.
I found a great company called Let’s Make Art that sells fantastic subscription boxes. I’ve enjoyed their watercolor and art journaling boxes so much. Having all the supplies I need, and project guidelines laid out helps when I don’t have an idea of what I’d like to create, but I’m in the mood to pick up a brush. This is one of those projects.
I liked the words I wrote on this journal page, and they felt right for my first day of sharing.
Day two.
I love making these hot pads because they let me play with color and patterns in fun ways. I’ve sold quite a few on Etsy.
Using four hand-selected contrasting fabrics, I fold twenty-eight pieces of fabric to form a single star. So they take a bit of time to get them put together.
Day three.
I’m working on my 2023 Being Board (kind of like a vision board, but mapping out my year. ) This abstract watercolor might eventually become the background to a month on the board. I wet the entire paper, dropped in blue and green paint, and then sprinkled salt on it to get blooms and texture.
Later in the challenge, you may see more pieces of my Being Board!
Day four.
I took a course with Laura McCowen and Elena Brower in 2018, and one of them said something close to this. It’s stuck with me and still guides me today.
Another project inspired by Let’s Make Art’s Jesse Peterson.
Day five.
For the past 12 years, I’ve spent Sunday mornings with one of my dearest friends, Jenny - running around Waynesboro, Staunton, Crozet, and Charlottesville. Two midwestern girls found each other, started running together and discovered they shared the same cadence, love for getting outdoors, and heart.
I painted this scene on a card for her to mark the Blue Ridge mountains that have been the backdrop to our mornings together.
Day six.
In addition to art, I’ve always loved math. Quilting feels like math to me. This quilt is made in the one block wonder method.
To make one, you place 6 layers of the same fabric on top of each other lining up the patterns exactly, and then cut them into triangles then sew each group of 6 triangles together into a hexagon.
Here’s the original fabric.
Day seven.
The idea for this painting came to me while I was running to the song Not Afraid. It led me to find this photo, and I used it to inspire this oil portrait on canvas. Marshall Mathers (Eminem) wrote the song Not Afraid about his recovery. I added the lyrics to Not Afraid in oil marker once the painting was complete.
I hope to paint other musicians with a similar lyric layering. I’ve got another in the works of Patty Griffin. I hope to get that one finished to share during the 100 days.
A funny thing to note is that if you look at the image below, he has six fingers on his right hand. I “paint what I see” and originally painted him with six fingers. It took me a few sessions to figure out what was wonky about his hand!
