Sunday, 2 November 2014

100 Days of Summer

My first year of studying is almost over. In the space of a week, I've come to realise the value of keeping your momentum going, no matter how much you feel like you deserve a break. Although all of my deadlines (save for one last exam) had officially passed on Friday, the worst possible thing I could do now is stop creating art. It sounds bizarre, not wanting to stop the artistic process and crazy methods of working.

Momentum is a hard thing to keep going.When it finally starts rolling, you start working better than you have before, you push yourself further than you thought you could...but when you finally hit that deadline and finish the work, you suddenly get this baffling sensation that there is nothing more to do. You feel lost. You want to do something but at the same time you want to enjoy the relief of that deadline being over. It's the twilight zone for artists, and just people in general.

But the truth is, the twilight zone is constructed by ideas that work cannot be enjoyable. As an artist, your work can stress you out, but if you really enjoy it, then it stops feeling so much like...well, work. It starts to feel like a calling, a compulsion to create, even when those deadlines have passed. So I have decided that for the duration of my summer break (which is over 100 days), I will continue doing constructive work. Last week, after my last post I started working on a list of 100 things to do over Summer (read one thing per day typically).

So here is my list, I'm struggling to fill up the last few places, so if you have any ideas please comment below.
100 Days of Summer
  1. Write one blog post every week
  2. Spend an entire day making origami cranes
  3. Do daily writing everyday
  4. Finish my monopoly painting
  5. Finish my Venus Painting
  6. Organise Cupboards
  7. Start AND finish an artwork in one day
  8. Take photos of all my art and put it on my pages
  9. Give away old clothes to charity (Empty Hanger in Sandton?)
  10. Declutter
  11. Make at least one Santa Shoebox for Christmas
  12. Write letters to People who I should have written to long ago
  13. Make the First Year Survival Guide
  14. Update Facebook and DeviantArt accounts once a week
  15. Find a Penpal
  16. Cut all of my old high school notes into squares (See #2)
  17. Make another book by hand
  18. Go stationery shopping
  19. Wear a different outfit every single day (No cheating and wearing the exact same thing twice)
  20. Go book shopping
  21. Design my own logo
  22. Design my own Calendar
  23. Get 100 likes on my Facebook Artist page
  24. Archive all the work I have done this year
  25. Take part in Illustration Friday every week
  26. Organise Art Supplies (COMPLETED)
  27. Use old scraps of paper and make cards
  28. Write a short story
  29. Write a Poem
  30. Enter the World Citizen's Art Competition
  31. Make business cards
  32. Collaborate with Josh
  33. Collaborate with Natasha
  34. Go driving a few times a week
  35. Sign up for the Rosebank Market
  36. Do a large-scale Typography Drawing
  37. Get more lino
  38. Learn to cook and bake
  39. Make a drawing for someone else
  40. Find a new genre of music to listen to
  41. Customise my car and put things inside that are useful
  42. Enter an art competition
  43. Make an artwork using non-traditional mediums
  44. Do Hibiscus Painting for mom
  45. Do one Oil Painting
  46. Make Colour Swatch notebooks
  47. Learn how to make my own paper
  48. Get back in shape, do at least ten minutes of exercise a day
  49. Learn to master a different medium
  50. Figure out how to sculpt using texture paste
  51. Make more colour mixing squares
  52. Get a good anatomy textbook
  53. Do an artwork from life
  54. Attempt a blind painting
  55. Go an entire day without wearing glasses and then write about it
  56. Try being a vegetarian for 3 days
  57. Try and actually drink 8 glasses of water in one day
  58. Make one public work of art
  59. Learn how to write with my left hand
  60. Learn how to draw with my left hand
  61. Actually make a drawing using only my left hand
  62. Figure out my own unique makeup look (COMPLETED)
  63. Make a comic strip
  64. Experiment with Henna Tattoos
  65. Have an awesome manicure every week
  66. File all the loose paper lying around my room
  67. Make a digital portfolio
  68. Organise a group for first year orientation
  69. Read at least 10 books
  70. Go art supply shopping
  71. Make a time lapse video of making an artwork
  72. Start writing tutorials on how to make stuff
  73. Do recipe organisation for mom
  74. Start figuring out how to feng-shui the flat
  75. Start building something out of cranes
  76. Finish Post-it Project
  77. Throw one party at home
  78. Create a real website
  79. Reorganise books
  80. Figure out new ways to wear my long hair up
  81. Finish this list
  82. Figure out what my alter ego artist would be like
  83. Do a good deed for someone else
...And that is as far as I've gotten. I'm struggling with these last few ones, so I'm open to suggestions.

Until we meet again
Talia

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