I just listened to the wonderful CraftyPod
podcast about Kirsty Hall's year of daily drawing,
The Diary Project. It's very inspiring to think about committing yourself to a year of daily creativity.
And, for me, to have a set of rules makes it even more appealing. If only I were a film maker! Then I wouldn't have to come up with my own rules. I would love to make
Dogme95 movies. The best part would be to have the fancy certificate at the beginning of my film.
I've done something daily before. I started a journal on our wedding day in October 2001 and wrote something every day until August 4, 2003. I started out on paper, but a couple of months into it, Andrew built me a web application so I could add images to my entries. Basically, he built me a blog before we realized what blogging was. It's great to look through those entries and see us, the places we went, the things we did during our first couple years of marriage.
In 2001, Andrew wrote wrote a poem a day. It's an impressive achievement and an impressive collection of writing. The year was jam packed: we married, we moved from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, 9/11 happened. Again, it's wonderful to have those poems as a record of 2001. Often he incorporated what was going on in our life or the world:
February 11, 2001So we sit by the snack counter
waiting for the movie to begin.
The people who pass by
can't help but look
and I wonder if it's
you crocheting an orange hat
or me writing in a notebook
that attracts their attention.
It's difficult writing
in a space like this.
"What would you call this," I ask,
"this place by the snack counter?"
Neither of us know.
"I just realized how weird we look," you say.
"We're just very efficient."
I'm only half kidding.
Why shouldn't we make a hat in the theater?
A poem doesn't always begin
gazing out a window
or embarking on some journey.
Sometimes it begins right here,
on a hard wooden bench,
a few dozen paces from the raisenettes.
© Andrew Merlino. All rights reserved.I always loved it when I made it into one of the poems. The only rule he had is that he couldn't go back and edit them after the day had passed. Certainly, the daily poems were a challenge, so much more difficult than writing in a journal every day.
Last night after seeing the podcast's theme,I got very excited about the idea. I've been trying to come up with some sort of constraints or daily practice for my craftiness.
But the more I think about it, the more I don't think I want to have a daily practice. Most days I already do something creative. I'd hate to eat into that time. Plus, the days I don't do something creative, it's because I'm busy working or just don't feel like it. I don't want to force myself to create just for the sake of creating.
The one thing that I don't do as much as I'd like to, is share my creative process and my inspirations on my blog. I usually wait until an item is completely finished before I share it. Part of the reason is that sometimes it takes me months (or years!) to finish a project, and it would be difficult to carry a narrative thread through that kind of time frame. Or maybe I'll never finish it at all, which is less than exciting.
I'd also like to share my ideas on my blog, but I think it may be a little naive to do so. Couldn't people just rip them off and do them before I ever get a chance to? Although nothing stops them from taking my ideas *after* I finish a project. Maybe I'm a little too self-important or a little too paranoid. What do you think? How do you handle this on your blog?
I only have a couple of days to come up with something. My first idea was to decorate a 3" x 5" card every day. I think it's a great idea, but not for me. At least not this year. Maybe, if (when!) I become a full-time maker, I'll do that.
I'm leaning towards cracking open the blog a little more: carrying around my camera with me to take pictures of things that inspire me; writing more about my process of designing a stuffie or a crochet item as it evolves (as opposed to writing a tutorial about my process); and embracing the immediacy of a blog and not worrying so much about constructing a narrative around everything I post. Certainly, it would take less time to write a post if I use the blog more as a series of snapshots of creativity and making rather than, or in addition to, using it as a showcase for finished pieces.
If this is the way I go, I'd like to come up with some rules, constraints, or obstructions of some sort. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. :)
Of course, I may not resolve to do anything at all. I guess we'll all find out in a couple of days.