Also one other little detail… I announced that I was going to take part in the RPM Challenge back in the beginning of February. Alas that was not to be. I actually did create enough rough music to technically complete the challenge if you include raw ideas and such, but I decided not mail anything into them. Maybe next time!
So what to make of this little experiment in 52 Things? Pretty much everything I said at the halfway point still holds true. I guess I’ll conclude with a couple of final observations:
It’s about the process, not the result. I’ll quote here a comment I made on my friend Dav’s blog, who’s also begun his own “52 Things”:
“For me, I have to keep reminding myself that doing anything creative at all is a victory in itself. Sometimes that thing you might think is lame is the seed of something larger. Other times it’s just lame, but it’s necessary lameness. It’s like you’re getting the creative dreck out of your system in order to make way for better ideas. Congratulate yourself for doing something (anything) in the face of (possibly) feeling like just saying “I’ll just skip it this week… it won’t matter”.” 2/11/08
52 weeks are going to go by no matter what. The question to ask is “What are you going to do with that time?” I look back and go “Damn, look at all this stuff I’ve made. Whether anyone else likes it or cares about it or notices it doesn’t matter. I’ve made stuff.” That feels pretty good.
What’s in store for the future? I’m not certain yet. I’ve loved the process and definitely think I’ll begin another similar challenge at some point. One thing I would like to do is thank all of you who have been so supportive through the last 52 weeks! (You know who you are! : ) Also if you’ve read this far I’d like to point you in the direction of a couple other creative folks who’ve started their own 52 Things… One is my friend Dav over at AkuAku who I mentioned earlier. The other is someone (whom I’ve never met) who left a very gracious comment recently… Go check out Siobhan over at Sew-n-So’s to see some very cool creations. To both of you I say please keep doing what you’re doing! It’s been incredibly inspiring to see the things you’ve made and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with. (I’ve totally been subscribed to your RSS feeds so don’t think no one is watching! ; )
If you’d like to say hello or ask me any questions about anything you’ve seen on the site, feel free to email me at thomas {@} 52things.org.
I’ve decided to take part in this years RPM Challenge. The goal is to record 10 songs, or 35 minutes of original music in the month of February.
I see this dovetailing well with 52 Things. It provides another deadline and will force me to write more frequently. I’ve been very pleased with the progression of the music I’ve created here, but think it’s time to take it to another level.
After (and during) the completion of this weeks project, I began to ask myself “Is this thing that I’ve created art?” I walked out the door of my apartment today without any idea of what I’d make. I had my watercolors. I had some colored chalk that I’d purchased last week. I had a box of clay. I had no preconceived notions, other than “I need to make something, and I want to stay out of my comfort zone.”
There’s a nice spot down by the Hudson river near my apartment with good light. It was a pretty day so I headed in that direction. I sat down on this big stone and began playing with chalk. After a while I shifted to clay and started working with blotches of color pressed into the stone. I had no idea what I was creating, but it was very meditative to just work with color, texture and light. While I was finishing up and photographing the piece, a colleague rode by on his bicycle. At that point, I still had the word “ART?” stenciled next to good old Frederick. (”Frederick” was a name I only came up with after my colleague looked at the piece and saw something in it that I hadn’t. At that point I had no idea what it was that I’d made…)
To be honest, I was a bit shy about having anyone look at what I’d created and found myself making excuses for the quality. I felt embarrassed to be caught red handed out on the Hudson river pushing clay into a rock. Writing “ART?” next to what I’d created was my way of apologizing. It was like saying “Yeah, I know this sucks but is it art?”. After he left, I decided “You know what, screw it. Let people look at this thing and make up their own damn minds about what it is.” I pulled off “ART?” and re-photographed. In the end, it’s enough that I spent time creating. What I ended up with was something that is uniquely my own. Whether or not it’s “ART” (or good “ART”, or bad “ART”) is immaterial. I made something, and that’s enough.
I have to say that I’m extremely proud of this weeks project. I’ve never really painted anything before. (I’m sure I must have painted as a child… it’s the type of things children do… but I have no memory of it.) It was extremely meditative and I lost track of time while I was painting. It’s interesting how similar the process was to composing music. Many times when I’m writing something I’ll have moments in the beginning where I’m thinking “This absolutely sucks.” I plow through those voices in my head, and eventually come up with something that I like, or at least something that’s a hell of a lot better than when I started.
When I first began this piece my little voice was saying rather loudly “I suck at this!” I managed to plow through. It’s no Picasso, but I have to keep reminding myself that 52 Things was never supposed to be about creating masterpieces. It’s always been about simply creating. I kept painting and what I ended up with was a hell of a lot better than when I started.
Also, a major hat tip to my friend Dav. He’s recently begun his own 52 Things, and seeing the cool things he’s come up with has inspired me to take more chances in what I’m doing here.
