One Year of Art
On April 1, 2021, I woke up at 4 a.m. to ready myself for my morning shift at the TV station. It was rough going; sleep has been scarce lately.
Adding night classes into my daily schedule was … perhaps ill-advised, though it’s all for the greater good of self-betterment, I supposed.
Regardless of how many hours of sleep I got (four) or how many days left I have before I lose my mind (-336), there is one thing that made this particular Thursday all the more irksome.
It was the 19th anniversary of my 21st birthday.
In other words, I had more-or-less successfully navigated 40 laps around the star burning at the center of our solar system. I had lived long enough to experience nearly 87% of the original airings of “Saturday Night Live” episodes. I’d outlived Jesus by seven years.
Color me accomplished.
So as I am writing the sequel to “Dr. Cerulean’s Guide to Traversing Time & Dimensions in 13 Simple Steps” (Available to purchase now!), I also wanted to set another midlife goal.
I hope you’ll join me as I work to accomplish it.
For every day in my 40th year on this planet, I am aiming to create one piece of artwork. Whether it’s a poem, a short story, a painting, a sketch, a photo, or something wildly ridiculous like, oh, I don’t know, a pair of Nike shoes customized with a nice Satanic theme, I plan on producing one piece of creative work every day for the next 365 days.
Can I do it? Yes, of course I can. And how dare you question me?
There will be some obstacles, of course. Well, to put a finer point on it, there will be one obstacle, and that’s me.
As many artistic people in this world, I deal with often crippling mental health issues that sometimes get so overwhelming that I shut down completely, finding no other option than to isolate myself from all things and all people. Those downtimes are the moments I fear could potentially interrupt my goal.
My hope is that someone, somewhere will help me keep on top of this year. Maybe that person could be you? It’s a simple task, really. Just follow along with my progress. Knowing I’m creating for someone else other than myself is a huge motivator. I’ll be adding each day’s project to this website.
I look forward to sharing this next year with you, and I hope to share with you some creations that are inspiring, confusing, confounding, disturbing, revolting, uplifting, and every other “ing” you can think of.
Here’s to the next 365 days. Cheers.
