Habit: A settled or regular tendency to practice, a way of thinking or method for accomplishing a task, or performed according to a prescribed form.

Variation: Something that is is irregular or outside of what is expected, a state of constant change, a decisive change of direction, a treatment of a creative work.

On February 22, I will be embarking on a challenge to create 100 collages in 100 days for The 100 Day Project.  This is my first time taking on a daily challenge, but not the first time I set out to start 100 works of art.  

It was during the beginning of Covid that I started out on my 100 starts project, based loosely on the 100 day project.  I started 100 10” x 10” works on paper with the goal to eventually finish all 100 works.  I did not have time constraints and I am still working on them today.  You can visit my 100 works on my website to see my progress and process for completing the works in a series. 

This year I will be following my determined plan to create a completed collage a day for 100 days.  In order to be able to complete this challenge I needed to create a body of work that would be meaningful to my artistic practice, help me reach some of my yearly goals and set some parameters to help me be successful.   

Dave Ramsey has a great article about setting meaningful life goals for 2023. He focuses on 7 areas that are general enough for anyone to set their intentions for the new year. I tried to keep my goals Specific, measurable, and time bound.

Here is my list.

Spiritual Goals: meditate 5 minutes a day, Increase by 1 minute every two weeks until I can sustain 20 minutes.

Fitness Goals: keep up with my anti-inflammatory diet at least 6 days a week.

Educational Goals: read 10 minutes nightly before bed during the work week.

Family Goals: keep in touch with my mother at least once a week through texts and phone calls. (she is one of my subscribers and I hope she likes this one)

Career Goals: increase traffic to Etsy, develop one on-line class by the end of the year, develop a free educational giveaway for other artists.

Social Goals: post my artistic work and endeavors 5 days a week and in my personal art groups once a week.

Financial Goals: break even in my business by the end of the year.

Make a list of goals that you would like to achieve in your own artistic practice. The goal may be to play, practice, or produce something. Starting with a plan and specific steps for achieving your goal is the best way to set an intention. It does not have to be big or long. There is nothing wrong with short and sweet.  

For The 100 Day Project, I am zeroing in on my creative and career goals.

In the book, The Perfect 100 Day Project; how to choose make & finish your creative project by Rich Armstrong (I highly recommend it), he lists a series of questions to help you zero in on a good project.  One example is What do you want to get done? Or What do you want more of in your life?  For me, I want more play and I want to send my work out into the world. I did some further brainstorming to really look at the reasons “why?” this project is worth doing right now.

Here are some things that I came up with to explain my why?.

I want to:

learn to make decisions faster

create work that is less fussy and has more space to breathe

piece together papers like puzzles

find new ways of working and loosen up my process

notice unexpected possibilities that could influence my work

ship artwork out to the world daily

Next, I  defined my parameters for my creative work.  If I did not pare down my work through time constraints and materials, my reasons for doing the project would never come to fruition.  My time is limited because I still work full time.  I decided that I will create a daily collage after dinner each evening.  I will not spend more than 45 minutes working and use the last 15 minutes pushing the work out on Etsy.  After 50 days, I hope that I can streamline the process.  

I limited my materials to a 4” x 6” book page, 5 colors, solid painted papers, printed papers, and text.  This will be used as a guide for everyday, but I also wanted something to keep it fresh.  I decided that everyday I would have to include a found piece of paper.  Looking for a paper to include in my collage would force me to notice the items that I come into contact with on a daily basis and imagine possibilities that could not be planned in advance.  

The 100 Day project is meant to awaken, nurture and sustain your creative spirit through the cultivation of small daily acts. I will be sharing more about this project in upcoming Newsletters and Blogs. I hope that you will continue to follow my journey and also consider starting your own.  This is the homepage for the project if you want to find out more about it now.  

We all have a capacity for endless creativity. Ideas can come from anywhere. I found my idea for the 100 Day Project from a trade book that my husband brought home for me from work. The pages are beautiful and graphic. The size is small and perfect for 100 days of experimentation. The first chapter had this image as a title. This will be the name of my project and my mantra for the entire100 days.

I would love to know what you think. Have you participated in The 100 Day Project? What advice do have for planning a successful project?

Thank you for being part of my journey.