What I was mostly doing in 2024

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365 pages of art - these are my favorites

I committed myself to a daily project for the entire year of 2024. Whew! It was a lot. Time to stop and reflect.

What just happened?

Well, for this project I set out to fill a small 3”x5” Moleskine diary —365 dated pages made of crappy paper—with some kind of art every day. For a year.

The pages you see above? My favorites.

Why did I take this on?

I tend to get lured by all the new possibilities of a new project, conveniently forgetting that I lose inspiration well before the project is finished. Of course, this is not a bug but a feature of the creative process. How else would we give birth to new creations if we remembered the pain of labor?

It started because I was inspired by a couple of artists who do this kind of thing, especially Pep Carrio, who has filled Moleskines with art for years. His work is amazing.

What was I thinking?

I wasn’t. When it comes down to it I put myself on the hook for a very long project out of irrational emotion, maybe even complete delusion.

Maybe that’s the only way to get anything done.

So, the goals of the project:

I tried to keep my expectations small. All I had to do was fill all the pages with something visual. Something being the operative word. Anything counted—even just one dot, and I planned to fill those pages every day, one day at a time.

Did I hope to create certain kinds of artworks or develop in certain ways? I don’t remember but I don’t think so. I just wanted to fill that book.

And the reality…

(Now I’ll turn to trusty bullets and a few close ups to share my thoughts on what happened—actual life experience being nonlinear as it is.

  • I filled all 365 pages! I feel good about that. It’s quite satisfying now to hold this thick art-filled book in my hands, to flip through the pages. The grid above gathers all my favorite pages into its own digital artwork, and that pleases me too.

  • I’ve never done anything every day for a whole year before this—and I can report that my record still stands. I still have not done something every day for a whole year!

  • I could not fill one page each day. I repeatedly fell behind, then I’d catch up by doing sets of pages at a time—and then fall behind again. After a few months I gave myself the grace to make two page spreads every two days. But I still fell behind. And caught up. And fell behind.

  • I’ve never been able to see my style before, and now when I put them all together, I can! So that’s something. For the most part my art is is bold and graphic, I love shapes and wonky characters! Certain motifs reappeared frequently—cats, birds, wonky animals and characters, for instance. Interesting.

  • Finally, after many years of trying to choose, I see now that I just don’t have to choose. I can see that love both abstraction and more representational art (though I tend to draw in an abstractified style).

  • I cannot say that I enjoyed this project. For much of it, I felt the burden of keeping up, coming up with ideas, and it became increasingly difficult to work with this flimsy paper in a tiny book—growing more and more cramped as the book started bulging.

  • I also often felt like I was taking too long on one (small) page at the expense of other projects. And in fact, I did spend too much art time here and not enough imet on other projects. I made a handful of other works on paper and in other art journals and sketchbooks, yes, but I think I created far less outside of the Moleskine than I ever have in my art practice.

  • Except that I actually created far more than ever in one year: 365 pages of this small book is filled with art.

  • And by the way, when I fell into an especially fun drawing or painting or collage piece, I totally loved it! I ended up frequently making work that surprised and delighted me.So there goes my story that I didn’t enjoy the project.

  • It’s absolutely true that we have to create a lot of bad art to make something good—and maybe being uncomfortable is just part of the process.

  • I didn’t share most of what I created in this Moleskine—not online and not with people IRL. Why? Because, look closely, most are rough and unfinished. That’s the truth.

  • Individually, most pages did not meet my standards for sharing, I hate to admit—because I KNOW social media is filled with way too much perfection posturing and I don’t want to give anyone that impression. Butandalso…what artist wants to share poor quality work?

  • But again. I have to remind myself: what was my intention? It was not create final works of art. It was to create one drafty piece every day.

  • All in all, this project was not easy. But I met my goal week after week, month after month —and then, over 365 days, I ended up with over one hundred pictures I do like, some I even love.

  • But. man, it was uncomfortable.

Was the project a success?

Absolutely. I’ve come to know myself as an artist so much more. I’m proud of myself for completing the project. And I I developed my style.

Will I do it again?

Absolutely not!

And whatever I make next? It won’t be in notebooks with crappy paper.