Choosing your 100 day project

and following your own breadcrumbs

Why Pebbles?

What makes us love what we love? Why do we gravitate to some things and not others? Why am I drawn to pebbles, patterns, weird animals (frogs, lizards, cicadas, javelinas etc), dusty things and tangles in my art? I’m not quite sure I have answers to this question. But I think as an artist what I do want to pay attention to is the spark of joy I feel when I’m using these elements in my art!

leaning always to the weird animals and bugs

While I may admire and even prefer to look at certain art, it oddly may not be the art that I create! I love seeing very washy watercolors, minimalistic graphic art, architectural perspective and abstract art…but I may never gravitate to even attempting art like that. Why? Because I have an inner magnet that pulls me towards certain ways of expression and certain subject matter that is quite inexplicable.

My current project

A little recap for those who are new, for this 100 day project, I’m painting ‘pebbles’ using acryla gouache, thread, etc., and exploring palettes, and patterns inspired by the desert

my current 100 day project

Peeling the layers

When I decided to start this 100 day project, the first stumbling block was - what can I do over and over again a hundred times and not go mad? To come to a conclusion, I had to first peel away the layers of desire to make something ‘cool’, something I have seen other artists do that made my heart race, something that would be ‘popular’. (As if one can ever predict that!). Then I had to peel away delusions of being able to pull off something exciting but complex, for example carving a block and making a print a day, doing a daily portrait, embroidering a sampler. All these are lovely projects, but definitely not practical (for me) to pull off as a 100 day project. Once I’d shed these superficial desires to win friends and influence people (on social media), I had to sit with myself.

I had to sit with myself. And think about the thing that makes me tick, the thing I do that always brings a spark of joy as I do it, the thing that I can simplify enough to be able to repeat, and still find there’s more to explore.

It may not come to you right away, and there were many false starts in my first 100 day project. One good thing I had done, was taken any pressure off of having to keep up with others etc., so I didn’t think of those early attempts as failures, but as a way for understanding my own desires better. Eventually back then, I landed on a thing I felt I wanted more of, and what I already gravitated to - patterns. But I was tentative and didn’t really commit - and it shows. I used paper that didn’t quite bring joy, I was wishy-washy about committing to a color palette I loved. I confused myself with trying to please ‘others’ and lost my voice in the process. I shifted gears at one point to scale the art up, and again didn’t use the lovely watercolor paper (what am I saving it for?) and as a result, though I learned a lot and had a lot of fun, these little hesitations to commit were felt by the very audience that I so wanted to please.

sample of 100 day project #1

Learning from the past

This time around, I took the time to sit with myself and look at what I gravitate to over and over in my art. Patterns, color, the desert - and pebbles. Always pebbles! My phone is filled with photos of all these things. Every time my art has a patch of pebbles I cant wait to get to it…and painting them is always the most calming and soothing part of my art making. So when I was thinking of what is the one thing that I wont mind doing again and again, pebbles came to mind. Then patterns, then the desert, and eventually if you’ve followed my journey so far, photos of the desert as a reference to bring it all together.

Spot the pebbles! Finding breadcrumbs from my own art over the years

Follow the breadcrumbs that you’ve been leaving

The clues to your preferences lie in your own sketchbooks! The things you doodle over and over, the subjects that you feel like capturing, they’re all there. I have sketchbooks where I can see me doing something so similar, but not having a format, or thinking of it within the container of a project. Below is a small peek at a sketchbook from 2022.

This half finished project below is something I think of often. I want to go back and finish it, or do larger versions of it. Again, this is something I started in 2022 and it still haunts me. When I pulled it out to look at it while writing this, I was surprised at how much it reflects everything about this current project! Leaning into my own curiosity and my own interests has made this project sustainable and I am excited about each new square!

Learning from the past

I do not think of Project #1 as a failure. It taught me so much that is invisible to the eye. I learned to keep it simple, to use a medium that truly brings me the most peace and joy, to lean into my inexplicable love of pebbles, to use good paper, to really commit to it being first of all for me, to scratch an itch I have and not pander to an invisible audience hovering over my shoulder! I also had to overcome my bone deep laziness to document it well (or lets say better than I have, before), and I see the benefits of that when it comes to sharing it online. It’s just a matter of forming a consistent habit. I’m taking photos with my phone, against a white paper and then adjusting the image a little on the phone itself. Thats it. Nothing complicated. But I’ve made a folder in my photos where I keep all these photos of process and finished work and the reference, and thats made it so much easier to share! All these tiny steps and big learnings have made this project feel so much more me, more fun and I can see that reflecting back to me by the likes and comments in a way I didn’t in the first 100 day project.

If you are on the verge of considering a long term project like this, I hope you can take something from my meandering journey and apply it to your own. Look at your own quirky likes, passions, and things you gravitate to over and over and see if perhaps there’s some thread there that you can keep pulling. As always, if this helped, I’d love to hear from you!