2021 8th Annual #The100DayProject
One of my favorite parts of the year is coming up fast! In seven days, creatives from around the world will participate in #the100dayproject. Each participant decides on an act of creation, carries out that act for 100 days, and shares a post about their progress each day. I’ve seen participants do everything from drawing and painting to animating and renovating.
Since I’ve been discovering so many incredibly talented artists while working on Contribute.to, this year for my project, I’ve decided to research and share the story of a new artist I’ve found each day. I’m collecting the artist stories together at jgreenwalt.com/artists
Every year, when #The100DayProject announcements start to trickle into my inbox and feeds, I cycle through the same breadth of emotions. I am equal parts excited, anxious, grateful, and overwhelmed. I’m excited to be a part of a global art project that inspires and encourages creative output; I’m anxious because 100 days of anything is a lot of work, and I’ve always had trouble with sticking to routines; I’m grateful for facilitators like Lindsay Jean Thomson who make this massive collaborative project possible; and I’m overwhelmed because I know I always want to do more in this project—and in life in general—than is possible with a 24 hour day.
For many creatives, myself included, #The100DayProject is an exercise in prioritization and time management. Over the years, this project has been the nudge hundreds of thousands of people needed to make time for themselves and the personal projects they’ve been keeping on the shelf. In the past, I’ve used #The100DayProject to develop my digital illustration skills, learn how to work with new technologies, practice writing, and refocus on projects that I’d neglected for years.
I haven’t successfully completed #The100DayProject yet. 100 days of working on the same thing is difficult given my fondness for variety. But each year I stop working on the challenge, I get to reflect on why I stoped and what I can do differently to be successful in my next attempt.
I have high hopes for this year, the 8th annual #The100DayProject, because I’ve designed a project that has enough variety in activities to keep me engaged—I get to discover cool artists, conduct interviews, write, and play with web design—and I’ve actually created a plan and scheduled time for when to work on which parts of the project (my #The100DayProject M.O. usually involves squeezing project time into the 10 minute gaps between meetings).
Will I make it through 100 days of discovering and writing about artists? Who knows 🤷🏻♀️. Anything could happen. Some crazy event could shake up the entire world, leading me to flee home and move eight times across three states (why I didn’t participate in last year’s challenge). But I’m going to give it a try. Armed with the learnings from previous #The100DayProjects, and my general optimism for 2021, I think I’ve got a good shot. Wish me luck! 🤞🏼
Follow #The100DayProject
This article is the beginning of a series of artist biographies I created for the 8th annual #The100DayProject, a community art project in which thousands of people around the world challenge themselves to work on a creative project for 100 days. For my project, I challenged myself to share the story of an artist I recently discovered each day.
For more artist biographies, visit jgreenwalt.com/artists