Monday, January 05, 2009

CED2009: the day planner


CED2009: the day planner
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

So this is part of my plan to keep up with my drawing for this challenge -- a small dayplanner calendar. It addresses a bunch of things that I found to be difficult the first time I tried to do one of these art every day things.

Because I can carry it around with me, I always have something that I can draw in. I also like having a record of things all in one place. I understand that some of the fun of this challenge (and of exploring creativity) can be to find new and unusual places to create art -- business cards, notebooks, napkins... you name it. (And other ways of thinking about what is art and what it is to be creative.) And I need to stop worrying about how things will turn out, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to draw on stuff that I know will be thrown away. But when I drew in different sketchbooks and journals, it felt less like a consolidated project, which somehow didn't feel as satisfying to me. I should probably just get over it. I think I will. But I think I'll do that in addition to the calendar.

Anyway, the calendar also a physical object that reminds me that I want to be drawing. I'm hoping that it will help get me into the right headspace to draw. And the smaller space and lines makes me worry less about drawing something "worthwhile." I'm hoping it'll let me play a bit.

I've noticed I've already turned it into something of a journal, recounting something that happened or something I did during the day. Hopefully I won't fall into a pattern and feel obligated to keep it up, although it's kind of fun to treat it that way right now.

So... so far, so good. Although I realize that the first few days have been easy -- a holiday, only one work day, and a weekend. I haven't had to balance this with my usual juggernaut of other activities. When everything else kicks in, that's where the real challenge will start. Hopefully it will be the break from the chaos rather than a burden or chore that's taking away from other things that I want to be doing.

2 comments:

Genie Sea said...

An excellently creative and practical idea! :)

Leah said...

I really dig this way of daily practice you've got going on. As I read your post, I thought that you could also staple or use paper clips to pull in drawings on the backs of business cards or napkins if you wanted to!