Art boot camp: a 30 day creative project
Getting the creative juices flowing.
Hello! I’m Celine and I write about books, cooking, creativity and surviving life in the city, with a wild heart. Subscribe for free posts like this one, or join the community for other exclusive writing. Either way, thanks for reading!
Keen to get started with a creative endeavour, but not sure where to begin?
Let’s consider a few things.
When we want to get fit, we often sign up for gruelling exercise boot camps. You’ll pay good money to get up early and have an over-enthusiastic trainer yell encouragement/abuse at you while you lift heavy things and run up and down either a gym or a field.
Or something. I’ve never actually been to boot camp, so I don’t know what goes on at these things.
I like the idea, in theory. That being, committing to a practice, in order to make it routine. Or ritual.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about time. Namely how we spend it and how we feel like we don’t have enough of it to do what we want. And why that is, exactly.
Previous percolating within the brain space on this topic led to the penning of these two posts:
And going on from this, I’ve decided it would be nice to somehow find or make the time to embed some artistic practices that once brought joy, but fell to the wayside for various reasons.
I love making things and was quite the enthusiastic little sketcher in my youth. Wasn’t half bad at it either.
And for this reason, I lament having taken ‘Art’ as a subject in high school, as the combination of a soul-destroying mission to put together a final work for critique and a truly nasty art teacher rather killed my enthusiasm for drawing.
And then I entered the ‘real world’ and suddenly had no time for doodling. Which is a shame, as I genuinely used to enjoy it.
I’m looking to recapture some of that joy this year and a kick up the bum is always helpful. So. Here is what I’m proposing: a 30 day art boot camp.
Meaning that over the next 30 days, some sort of artistic practice is engaged in. Every. Single. Day. Yep.
I personally love a good experiment, so this is what I’m treating this as. Just a gentle exploration of a need to create, a sensation I’ve felt bubbling inside my soul over the last few months.
April also seems like a sensible month to engage in this, mostly due to Easter and its collection of public holidays. Plenty of time to engage with a new activity. I hope.
And if you’re interested, would love to have you come along for the ride.
The rules of engagement
In order to succeed, there probably does need to be some set of rules or parameters in place.
So, here are a few gentle suggestions that could help with achieving this aim.
1. Schedule this in for the same time, every day
This is some advice I was given after finishing a foundational painting course (except the advice was same time every week, not day), which I then completely ignored. However, I’m circling back to it, as I believe it’s true.
Embedding a particular pursuit into a certain time of the day allows for a greater chance of success.
I’ve definitely found this to be the case for having a regular meditation practice and totally believe there are benefits for anything else you wish to add to your day or week.
2. Spend at least half an hour on this pursuit
You don’t have to spend half the day, every day on this experiment, but invest just enough time to make it worthwhile – basically enough time to perhaps find a bit of flow and focus, and maybe even start having fun.
3. Do not, I repeat, do not seek perfection
Being a perfectionist is often a life-ruining personal characteristic. This is because you can often become disengaged with a new task or hobby when you’re not instantly 100% amazing at it.
It’s okay to make mistakes or produce things that you can readily admit are bad. The important thing is you finished the thing. And the more things you finish, even badly, the better you’ll get. Eventually.
4. Take the opportunity to try something new
To make this even more exciting and interesting, consider trying a medium you haven’t explored before. I’m quite keen to dive into the world of collage, which is something I don’t think I’ve played with since maybe primary school? And it looks quite fun.
Maybe this is an opportunity to indulge your wild side with a bit of basket weaving, wood whittling, wet felting, botanic printing or eco-dyeing. So many options!
5. Tell someone what you’re doing
It always helps to have some skin the game. Tell a friend, a partner, a family member, hell, even a pet what you’re up to.
My version of this is, I guess, publicly announcing this in my newsletter. Tick.
6. Take yourself on ‘artist dates’
I’ve been reading and engaging with The Artist’s Way (and have a lot of thoughts as a result, more to come on this) and one of the takeaways from this, is the concept of ‘artist dates’. This is basically where you take yourself out on some exciting adventure, to fill the cup of your inner-artist.
I’m not saying you have to do this every week, as I am not the boss of you, but maybe one or two outings over a month can help get the creative juices flowing.
Perhaps a morning trip to a local art gallery, or an evening at a life drawing class, a reading at a bookstore, a cheap theatre show – and if you live in Melbourne, I don’t need to tell you the options for ‘artist dates’ are both endless and probably a little weird too.
7. Allow time for reflection
And finally, give yourself a bit of time to ponder over progress. To sit in solitude, stare into space, or maybe scribble thoughts into a diary. Or even just write a note to yourself on day one, pop it into an envelope and open it up at the end of your CREATIVE JOURNEY to see where you’re at.
I’ll report back at the beginning of the next month with results of this experiment. I was thinking of sharing daily progress on ‘Notes’ but kinda hate any form of social media and also am not sure I can be bothered with that. So, we’ll see?
If you’re keen on taking part, then I’d love to hear how you went, too. 🎨
That’s it, for now. Have a great week and see you next Thursday.
‘Til then, stay well and well-fed.
-Celine
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Love your insights so much. Your posts are so often eerily pertinent! :P
I did a fabric collage at the Houston Quilt Show just more than a year ago. It’s a lovely sunflower. Loved it! I’m hoping to use it on a pillow or on a tote bag.