Day One Again

I have made a commitment to do 365 consecutive days of Whales.  It is officially on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list, so, if I miss a day, I will need to start over  from Day One.

I bought Noah Scalin's book, 365:  A Daily Creativity Journal to help me along.  I realize that he may not be the "originator" of the concept, but he is the one who inspired me.  Him, and the wonderful book Art & Fear.

I may miss a day or two of posting because of time constraints or lack of Internet access, however; I will post them as soon as I can.  Although I may not be able to post each day, I will still create a whale and document it. I better stop yapping so I can create my Second Day One whale.

Fry Hopping Whale

Now, aren't I witty?!

I am glad that I didn't follow Noah on his initial journey because it would have been difficult for me to have faith that I came up with ideas all my own.  When I did my Kissing Tail Whale, I thought, 'I bet Noah never did a skull with lipstick!'  I don't want to know if he did, or maybe I do.

When I have a question about the project, I search for it online. Like I did about cheating.  I have perused his skulls when I just didn't have ideas for my whales.  Let me rephrase that, when I didn't have ideas that would let me complete my whale within deadline.

I am learning that I am more creative than I give myself credit for.

McHumpback Whale

Here is what Fluke of the Camera Whale started as.

I was going to hold on to this and also to the next one that I will post with tomorrow's whale. But, I thought, 'Wasn't that cheating?'  'But it's my project!'  'I make the rules.'

So, instead of arguing with myself, I went in search of an answer from Noah Scalin himself--he is who inspired me to embark on this journey. Here is what he said when asked about cheating:

I thought, 'what am I learning from this project?'  I knew what I was learning from my mosaic project.  It didn't take long for me to come up with an answer.  This project forces me to find something--anything to create a whale.  I have a self-imposed deadline of midnight.  I scramble most days to meet my deadline and usually under an hour. I know I skipped a couple days early this week, but it has bothered me every day since because I did do this to make a whale every day, and not 365.

I was incredibly stressed early this week, but I think if I had forced myself to spend an hour creating a whale, it might have relieved, or transferred LOL, the stress for that hour.   So I am recommitting to A Whale-a-Day not to miss any days.