I posted this painting of mine on social media over the weekend to celebrate the arrival of Spring, and it is one of the favorite paintings I’ve ever done, created about six months after moving to the lake and inspired by morning walks to the water. It is on exhibit over at Kettlestrings Tavern in Oak Park until May, along with eight other seasonally inspired pieces (but then again, aren’t they all if I really think about it?).
Speaking of social media, aside from mostly art-related flurries of postings, I’ve kept it to a minimum over the past several months. I think I broke my Instagram account, because I haven’t been able to upload a picture over there since December and I can’t figure out how to fix it. I’ve always had an “appreciate-the-connections/want-to-quit-at-least-once-a-month” relationship with it, and that only intensified in 2020, for all the reasons anyone else has for alternately enjoying it and wishing it never existed. I’ve come this close to deleting my accounts at least a few times, then figured the good stuff still outweighed the bad, so I’m still there. Privately. With strong boundaries. And a broken Instagram-to-phone link.
At the end of January this year I saw a bunch of posts from artists talking about participation in a 100 Day Challenge, in which one commits to producing a sketch, doodle, drawing, swatch, painting, clay creation, or whatever you want — one a day for the next 100 days, and of course I could see the benefit of doing something like that. These challenges aren’t new. They’ve been around a long time, at least as long as Facebook has existed, and I’ve enjoyed seeing what people come up with when they’ve shared their journeys by posting daily or weekly results.
I was tempted to dive in, but then remembered when I did a 30 Day Sketchbook challenge last June, and I made it to Day 9 before deciding I was in it for the wrong reasons. So again I had to ask myself, if I were not going to post daily results on social media would I want to do this? Would I naturally want to do this? Now? Am I trying to prove something? To whom? And this inevitably led to the weird but relevant question: “If I do the 100 Day Challenge and don’t share it on social media, did it really happen?” Of course, the answer is yes, assuming I actually did it. But it made me really examine my motives for thinking about committing to these kinds of social-media-driven art challenges. After all, lots of artists do it and share truly inspiring results every day, and some say it transformed their practice. I believe them! So why not join them?
It comes down to what feels natural and organic — like there would not be anything out of alignment by adding that to my practice for 100 days, or 30 days, or more than 9 days (let’s be real). And the timing. As of January 31, there was no value added by me making that kind of commitment, but maybe someday there will be. I can picture contexts in which it makes sense to do it. And if I do it, whenever that may be, hopefully I’ll keep social media out of it, even if it’s just to prove to myself that my motives have nothing to do with posting photos on Facebook. ; )
Meanwhile, another botanical from last month’s class at OPAL:
