During yoga class the other day, my teacher was talking about the theme for the week - finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. She said something about "connection," and that stuck with me. During the rest of the class, I thought about the concept of connection as it relates to Make28.
Make28 is a project that was dreamed up by my online friend, Consumatron. He set a goal for himself to create a video every day in February, and he challenged everyone to join him by making something every day as well. So a few of us joined in and have also been making stuff - food, paintings, videos, drawings, journeys, enemies, music...
This project has created many connections, the most obvious being the connections we made with each other. I've really enjoyed seeing what everyone's made, how they interpreted the concept of "making," and glimpsing a little bit of everyone's creative processes. I love to see how other people work, create, and solve problems, even in different disciplines.
In Fearless Creating, Eric Maisel mentions the importance of getting together with other artists. "If you are a novelist, when do you meet with painters, dancers, musicians, and filmmakers to talk about your mutual concerns? When do you meet to discuss selling art, managing depression, or surviving as a truthful witness in America? My estimate would be never. This is really too bad. ...you will surely suffocate if you live in a vacuum."
I think projects like Make28 can be an important part of a creative life, creating connections with others working on different things, but with the same goal.
During these 28 days, I've also made some less obvious connections. Just the act of sitting down and making something every day has helped me to connect more with my creativity. Even if what I made wasn't that great or if it's not related to bigger things I'm doing, I know that what I'm making now will inform something else that I make in the future.
Here's a collection of the things that I made during February:
You can see more in my Flickr set. And the whole Make28 Flickr pool.How do you make creative connections?
Oh, and Make28 will continue, so feel free to join in!
7 comments:
Hi Deanna! This is a great concept...to sit down & just make something every day for a month. Love what you did...especially all the embroidery work. I've been so caught up in the dayjob lately that I haven't spent a lot of time creating. I might have to join in the fun. I've got several sewing projects that I've been wanting to try out. :)
After perusing your webpage for the first time, I have to say that I love the encaustic paintings you've done with birds & branches. That's one of my fav themes right now (if you couldn't tell from the lil' journal I brought to our last mtg). Really beautiful work. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!
Yep. I am always excited when I see artists getting together to do stuff and inspire eachother.
...inspiration, ideas, and energy....good stuff.
I love this Idea. Its funny because I have run into a bunch of people recently that do daily things...
I am just about ready to get on this ride and see where it takes me. I will not only make something every day (I do already) but make something in an unfamiliar media, with a time limit of say 15 or 20 minutes.
Excellent site! I just linked it on my blog. A wonderful service for emerging artists. Bravo. Best wishes, Mira from Mira's List. (p.s. I'm following you on Twitter now.)
Hi Deanna, It's been great stumbling upon your blog. I am an emerging artist myself and could use some tips from your site! I like what you talked about in this post. It reminds me of the online community/blog challenge at creativeeveryday.com Have you heard of it? It seems right up your alley. It's amazing how easy it is to get overwhelmed in the business side of art and all the other things we need to do, and forget to spend time creating every day!
Very cool. This is why I create the art I do, to give people a way to connect with others passionate about human creativity and to connect with their own culture.
Peace.
Looking at history one will often find that artists often formed little groups, connected with each other and 'fed off' each other creativity. Of course, it's probably easier to connect if all of you are hanging out on Montmartre...
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