100 Day Project – The First 50 Days – click for larger image

The Process Matters

Yesterday I shared the individual sketches from the first 50 days of my 100 day Challenge on my blog.

I don’t have them displayed on a Wall together as I’m not sure how to attach them to the wall at this point – and I really wanted to see them all together as a cohesive whole so I created the above image.

This is the first time I’ve seen them together link this – so cool how well they work together as  a grouping.  It was definitely not intended.

When I started the challenge I had in mind that I needed to make them fit together so I could Exhibit them.  I purposely spent time thinking about how to link of the lines so they flowed from on piece to the next.  I was trying to get shapes and values to make sense overall.

I was focused too much on what they would look like together as I was going to exhibit them at a gallery and it was stressing me out.  I was thinking more about the product than the process.

So I decided to not think about exhibiting them by deciding not to exhibit or sell them as I had done the last 2 years.  The point for this years project became to solely focus on process – to learn about mark making on paper.  And to focus on small compositions.

As I stopped worry about what they looked like lined up in order- each day I instead focused on making an interesting composition and making marks.

Wow – what freedom that gave me.  Overnight the project transformed into something so much more meaningful and fun.  And I think the compositions got better almost instantly.

As a professional artists that exhibits and sells my work, I sometimes get caught up in the “if I’m making it I should be able to sell it” mindset.  It is incredibly freeing to back away from that and just make something for the value the making.