Climbing on the Bandwagon

It seems that "everyone" these days is doing stuff by the numbers:  10 scarves in 2010, 11 shawls in 2011, 52 socks in 2011, even 365 self-portraits in a year.  These ideas sounded intriguing to me, but none really "rang my bell" so to speak.

Then I read a blog or heard a podcast or something (I am sooooo sorry I can't credit the idea springboard for this) talking about creating 52 small art projects, in 52 weeks.  I could do that, I thought.  Her idea was to get a notebook and make 52 finished drawing, paintings, etc. to go in the notebook.  Each would therefore be less than 8 1/2 by 11 inches in size.  But I don't draw or paint, bummer.  Even, she suggested, a tiny quilt, or a piece of pottery whose picture could be put into the journal/notebook.  BINGO.  I quilt.  I take photos.  I'm in.

Since I read this in about February it was too late to start in 2011.  And by next January I might have forgotten all about this.  But the idea persisted in my head.  I didn't forget, at least during March.  So . . . .

It occured to me that starting on my birthday and finishing a year later would create a personal, useful time frame for this type of project.  And it also occurred to me that ordinary notebook sized paper sucks for most quilt type projects.  And that I didn't know what art was.  And that it was my blog, so I got to make the rules.  And that I wasn't even clear about what "a project" is, since I was not going to limit myself to notebook sized paper, or even paper.  And that I knew WHY I wanted - was going - to do this, but I was not sure I could put it into words.

So this entry is to start setting the rules for myself, my projects and my blog.  Because if you don't know the rules, you don't know if you've broken them, right?

What is art, and what is a project?  What is small, and what is finished?

Stayed tuned for the answers to these important questions, and more.  And, feel free to create along with me.  I invite you to copy what I do, do something similar, do something that my project inspires in you, OR do whatever you like each week.  AND of course, you can also just simply read along, and spend your time climbing your own mountains, figuratively or literally.  Let me know what and how you are doing, if you like.