My 1st 100 Day Project

I began my 100 day project on October 2, 2021 instead of the official January 31st. I’m a gardener and 100 days would mean finishing in May. Living on the west coast, spring starts early and by February I’m planting peas and in March I start my seeds. In October, the garden is done, it’s dark out and there is no temptation to go outside unless I have to prune or rake. Easy peasy. I discovered this project earlier this year. It was intriguing and something that nagged at me because I had decided to renovate my “art” room from floor to ceiling, which meant no art for me. The stress of working, the renovation, and losing a close relative burnt me out physically, mentally and emotionally. I was so done with that room I resented it and I didn’t know how to get out of a bad funk.

It says to find something you can do in 5-10 minutes a day, and the tools you need are accessible and portable enough to fit in your purse or backpack. It sounds simple enough but I’m a planner and overthink most things. One idea I came up with was to pick a flower and do it a different way each day but I knew I would get bored after a few days. I’m not one to repeat a lesson let alone one flower! It took a couple of weeks to realize I had to limit my supplies to make this work and still challenge myself. I chose collage and charcoal.

I found a tiny 3 x 4” notepad that had 100 pages and would fit in my purse along with a glue stick. I chose paper because I love

everything to do with collage and a few pieces of paper take up no room in my purse. I sort all my collage into file folders by color for easy access. Scissors are optional and if I’m travelling I can just tear the paper with my hands. I chose charcoal because I can smudge it with my finger and get different values of black. The last item is a timer.

So here’s how it goes. I set the timer for 10 minutes and push start. I walk over to my collage folders, close my eyes, grab a folder, open it and pick one piece of paper. Then I open my eyes and say to myself “surprise!” At 6:30am I’m barely awake and in “get to work” mode. When I see the timer counting down, I know that I’ve got to do something quick; cut or tear it and glue it down! This is where the magic begins.

As I write this it’s amazing how much thought went into it. I told my sister and realized it wasn’t that simple. It boiled down to: I’m a planner (read: control freak) and a perfectionist. After 4 years of art journaling I have definitely loosened up but I still control my art. So when I hear artists say “let go and trust the process” I cannot relate. And, the word “intuition” is one I cringe at! Somehow in the few podcasts I’d listened to about the 100 day project, I just knew I had to do it.

What I learned:

Limiting my art supplies and the colors really works for me. Less is more.

Art can be just 10 minutes a day, I just had to find it, consistently. Before leaving for work at 6:30am, I had an extra 5 minutes so I changed my alarm clock to give me that full 10 minutes. This turned out to be a big factor in not controlling my art because I’m too tired to think at that hour! And on weekends, it would be the first thing I did before the day disappeared with usual tasks like dishes and laundry.

Doing it everyday also made me feel great because sometimes I’m too tired or busy to do anything after a long day of work and a one hour commute. So I was back into my daily art practice and I redeveloped a healthy self-care habit.

I learned to let go of control. There was a particular Saturday that I didn’t do it first thing in the morning. Over the course of the day, it was on my mind and I noticed myself thinking about what I might do with the paper I selected. How I might cut it, place it, or what shape I wanted to make it. Really you say?! Yup, I’m a control freak. The limitations that I set actually worked out perfectly for me!

If you’ve made it this far down the page, thank you!

You can also view the 100 day project on YouTube!