Daily Art

A couple of years ago I came across an idea of challenging oneself to do a little piece of art every day for a year.  Recently I have found a similar idea of stitching a tiny picture on a piece of fabric that represents each day.  I decided this year with a new decade I would try it.

Now the challenge for me is not going to be thinking of a picture or motif, but actually doing the stitching.  My needlework tends to be put aside when I get busy with school or the quilt show or other of life’s activities.  So this year I am going to challenge myself with my embroidery.

The ideas I have read about had to do with embroidery but any art would do.  You could sketch or paint something each day.  Take a photo.  Write a daily poem.  Or you could even make a little sculpture.  The idea is doing something every day.

Another important thing here is not to make them too big or elaborate which would take a lot of time to do the art.  You want it simple and small depending on what you are doing.  Some embroidery or drawing that is just a couple of inches or smaller, a quick photo of a flower growing between sidewalk panels or a poem of 3 or 4 lines.

The first thing is to decide on a medium: painting, drawing, embroidery, etc.  Then maybe the size you want.  Since I am doing embroidery and my little pictures will probably be less than an inch in size, I decided on a circle divided into 12 wedges, one for each month of the year.  I thought if it was divided up into section and I just concentrated on one section at a time, the whole project wouldn’t seem so overwhelming.

Then think about whether you want a theme to your paintings, embroidery or writings.  You might do something in nature, or animals, or just anything that pops into your head?   I am going to see what comes up each day. 

I am adding a couple of rules to mine.  One, to do my best to keep up but understanding that life may get in the way.  And know that my idea of how I plan this may change if I think of another idea of what to do or if it becomes too difficult to focus on a year at a time.  Which is another thing, if you like the idea of daily art but don’t think you can commit to a year then try a week or a month and see how you do with a shorter time frame, it is after all your daily art.

So all this was to share my challenge with you.  I am going to try to stitch something everyday that might represent that day and see how far I can go.  Here is what I have so far.

©2020 Cheryl Fillion