A Practice in Creative Presence
100 days of painting studies
Many are familiar with the widely known 100 Day Project. I have known of it for a long time, but never felt committed or clear on my own participation with the communal commitment to making.
As a painter, I already have made a commitment to making. Creative practice has become a layer of identity, of vocation, and of experiencing the spiritual journey. You see, in midlife I have been in a process of shifting toward holding my creative practice with greater honor and gratitude.
After completing a year of sharing my creative work on a professional level, I was left me with a lot of new experiences, as I tested out ideas and offers and cultivated connections and collaborations.
Core values have become clearer in this process, a sense of what is mine to hold and give (with humor and grace). A deep truth that is woven throughout my life’s story of pains and joys is that we were made for incredibly vivid, vibrant living and connecting in our day to day. Simultaneously, this deep truth highlights how fragmented we are from that life, how confused, lost, and unsure of what that kind of life feels and looks like.
Our egos, our traumas, our systems have all created some chronically murky waters to our capacity for presence.
Weren’t you talking about the 100 Day Project, you ask? Yes, yes, I’m getting there.
One of the tests and trials of the past year has been to offer prints of my original artwork. Prints are wonderful. I love prints. They are a beautiful, accessible way to own artwork and fill our homes with what inspires and resonates. And I always want to include a variety of offers for creative engagement, gleaning, and connection. But in the formation of this new season of my creative business, I’m feeling invited into a different kind of creative offer.
Here’s the shift (I promise, I’ll get to the 100 Day project real soon). Prints are now limited to in-person fairs, shops, and events. In their place, I will start to create daily studies/paint sketches. Some of these mini-painting sketches will be made available as a lower-priced artwork in lieu of the role prints have held. But they will hold more life, brushstrokes, and the vibrant playfulness of real-time creating.
Now, I imagine you can finally see the connection to the 100 Day Project. This lovely communal structure will be the container that holds a new practice of daily creating. While I will continue to work on my larger-scale, more complex original artworks throughout the spring, the daily study practice will be a place for presence, curiosity, play, and trying new things.
I have no agenda of what the studies will be focused on, each day will determine. The first day of the 100 Day Project is February 22. I am feeling quite excited to align my creative offers with what resonates, and grateful that there’s a lovely community who have already provided a supportive structure for practicing creative presence.
I invite you to set the calendar, as I will start sharing about this daily journey next month. I will continue posting these articles, received by email every two weeks, where I dig into what I’m experiencing emotionally, spiritually, and creatively through this sketching practice, as well as my other larger painting projects.
I will also share the daily studies on Substack Notes as well as on Instagram, so if you want to be tracking with me daily, you’ll find updates there.
Lastly, any of the studies will be available to purchase, so if you’d like to be aware of a new crop of affordable original artwork that will be released throughout the 100 days, you’ll want to keep an eye on this project as it unfolds.
Looking forward to the journey, and I’d love to hear if you also are planning on or interested in your own 100 days of creative play!
I love that you are doing this. I find creative challenges to be such a great way to push me further and explore new ideas. SO excited to see what you make!