Today, I finished my first one mark a day for a month art project. When I first started, I wondered how this was going to turn out. I wondered if I would forget to add my mark each day. Each week, I photographed this project, with the goal of being able to share my progress. And it turned out to be such an amazing project. Each day, I added one mark to my painting. With this painting, I was more focused on creating design than I was on creating something realistic or even representational. I wanted to create an image that represented my imagination and my spirit. I was hoping to create something original to me.
The great thing about this project is that it doesn’t tax your imagination. If I were to try to create this sort of image in one day, I would have given up halfway through. One cause of frustration would have been not letting the paint dry. The colors would have run into each other and the result would have been muddy colors and me whining, “I ruin everything!” The other cause of frustration would have been me running out of ideas. It’s hard to keep pushing creativity. Sometimes, it doesn’t flow. When you do just one thing per day, you get excited about each mark that you make. I made my marks in the morning. I woke up each day, excited about a new idea for the painting that was floating in my head. I felt so much excitement and very little stress. It felt awesome.
The only negative aspect of this type of project is that it does tax your patience. Sometimes, I really wanted to continue because the ideas were coming to me. But I stopped myself because it was a discipline and I felt confident that I would be happy with the results. And I am.
Here are the photographs of the work in progress:
Week one: new things are so cool.
Week two: I can see something forming here!
Week three: starting to feel movement and the shapes are becoming interesting
Week four: the new marks have to blend in to an image that already tells a story.
Day 31: And it’s done!
Thank you for following my art journey with this project. I hope that you think about trying it. It’s a really fun and stress free project. The process is what counts. It truly is a journey, and the result is icing on the cake. And the exciting thing is that this painting feels entirely original. It’s all me and my imagination! I hope that you enjoyed it and that it inspires you to do your own creative project, whatever form that takes!
I love this! Thank you for sharing the journey.
You’re very welcome, Barb.