Challenge: An Artwork a Day

I am fascinated with the idea of a challenge where you have to do something every day, whether its try a new recipe or run 5 miles or write so many pages of that book you want to finish.  There is something inspiring about setting some parameters for yourself and then trying to meet those…NO MATTER WHAT!  

I’ve been thinking about doing some sort of Art challenge along these lines for a while now.  As happens with most Art teachers, the majority of my creative juices get spent in the classroom.  I’m very happy to spend them there, but those efforts sometimes leave the time and energy for my own work in the dust.  

So this fall I decided I wanted to challenge myself artistically and that an “artwork a day” might be the way to go.  Our school year is 180 days long…what if I created one small (4”x 4”) artwork each school day from the beginning to the end of the year?  Think about it!  That’s 180 ideas that could be catapulted to larger, more extensive works!  If only a small number of those really turned out to be good ideas, I’d still be miles ahead of where I am now in terms of inspiration!

AND I always feel that walking the talk is great for the kids to see.  They know I’m an artist, but how often do they get to see my work?  I told them about my project on the first day of school and encouraged any of them to join me in the challenge, for any length of time. The artworks are posted on the bulletin board behind my desk.  My students of all ages are having a fun time watching the display grow day by day.  I can’t imagine what it will look like in May!

I’ll revisit this post then and tell you how I did.  

Happy Creating!