Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Daily art thoughts

I love daily art and in fact I started this blog as a vehicle for my daily art project in 2010.  Since then I'm on my third year of daily photographs (well, this year it's weekly, but same concept...) in which posting to the blog is the essential step in the rules.  I've also done various daily and weekly art projects in which the essential step is just to make the things, not to post them, so blog readers may see an occasional update, but not the entire array.

I decided I should be more organized in documenting and displaying my daily art.  While you can click on "daily art" and read all of my posts on this blog, they're kind of disorganized and you might have to look through posts on several different projects to follow just one.  So I'm getting my house in order.

I've started a new blog, Kathy's Daily Art, solely to show my daily art projects, current and past.  The three years of photos are there in full (I hope I can remember to cross-post new photos to both blogs).  And I plan to take complete photos of my other projects as soon as possible.

Unfortunately my seven years of daily postcards are unavailable.  For six years, I sent a postcard to my mother every day, and after she died I got them all back, but still haven't been able to summon up the grit to go through them, let alone organize and photograph them.  And the year after she died, when I sent daily postcards to all her closest relatives, I didn't keep good track of them.  It would probably be too much to expect that all eleven recipients faithfully kept all their cards and could let me document them.

But I'll be posting pictures of my daily art quilt (2001), my weekly bundles and packages (2011), and my daily hand-stitching (2012).  And I'll keep posting the photos to this blog, as well as updates on my non-photo projects.

Somehow this feels especially right.  I love daily art because of its structure and discipline, and I realize that it's even better when you can record and present everything you have done.  So please check out my new blog at your leisure.

And a reminder -- it's getting toward the end of the year!  That means it's not too soon to start thinking about whether you might like to do a daily or weekly art project yourself in 2013.  Some years I have come up with my daily art idea on the morning of January 1; others I have thought about it in advance and maybe even done a few dry runs in advance.  One year it took all of one day of dry run to realize that my idea was unworkable, but I'm glad that happened in December instead of on New Year's Day.  If you're intrigued by daily art, maybe you'd like to try a month of it and see whether you like it.  October and November would be really good times for that experiment, if I might be so bold as to make a suggestion.

6 comments:

  1. I love the idea - but that D word gets in the way, though it's the very idea of the discipline that appeals! Do you try to stitch at the same time every day? How do you manage with holidays and visits? Some practical tips might help me keep going once my initial enthusiasm is dented when life gets in the way!!!!

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  2. Hi Linda! no, I don't stitch at the same time every day, although it's nice on days when we stop work at 5 or 5:30, have a drink and listen to a lecture -- while I stitch.

    I find this is a wonderful project to do with holidays and visits because you can stitch while you talk with your guests and family. Also to take along to meetings. I actually welcome those times because I don't have to forgo some other activity to stitch.

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  3. I started a weekly diary block art quilt last December (on my birthday) and it will end on my birthday this year. The blocks are 6" and relate to something that was going on in my life that week. I only have 12 more to go and looking forward to the end. I am quilting each block and then butt the edges together using a zig zag stitch. When I am done with the last block all I have to do it BIND it! Yeah!!

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  4. Pink -- good plan to finish each piece as you do it. When I made a daily quilt several years ago it took me months to get it all sewed together!

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  5. As you know I love daily projects also, but would never consider starting one on the first of January, that would be to much like a resolution. I prefer to start (or finish) on a day that has meaning to me.

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  6. you're inspiring! my birthday is coming up in 2 weeks... maybe i should start my own 365 project that day. hmmmm....

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