The 100 Day Project | 2023

The 100 Day Project is a free, global art project with a simple premise: choose a creative project or practice, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online. 

This year’s iteration of the 100 Day Project starts on February 22, but the “rules” say you can start at any time. (Spoiler: there aren’t really any rules.) You can do your project for 100 days in a row, skip days--whatever works for you. You can change projects mid-stream. You can abandon it altogether once you’ve gotten what you were looking for. 

LEARNING FROM PAST PROJECTS

This will be my third year attempting a project, and Adele’s 6th. If you’d like to read about Alexandria Art Therapy’s previous projects, you can find our blogs about them here: 2022 | 2021 | 2016.

You can also find our past projects on Instagram through these hashtags:

Adele: 2016: #100daysofbijoutangles | 2017: #100daysofblackbijoutangles pivoted to #100daysoftinytangles | 2019: #100daysof2x2collage | 2021: #100daysofselfsoothing | 2022: #100daysofthecollectiveunconscious

Dot: 2021: #100daysofmeadows | 2022: #100tiles100days

DOT: At the end of last year’s project, 100 Tiles, 100 Days, I spent some time thinking about what I would want to tell myself ahead of starting a 100 Day Project the next year. Here’s what I wrote at the time: 

I wanted to get the benefit of doing a small, creative project every day. But there’s this thing that I always forget—I have a finite amount of stuff I need to get out. Feelings, ideas, experiences to process. And when I’m making little paintings, I’m not writing as much, which is usually my primary mode of processing. 

I have more skill in writing, and it captures the feelings more accurately for me. With art, I find that the things I’m trying to convey come out pretty messy. A new practice is exciting at first, but around day 50 both years, it began to fall flat. I think this tells me that if I participate next year, I need to go with photography or writing—something in which I’m a bit more fluent. Fluency, I think, is the key. 

I’ve also been thinking back on my first 100 Day Project, when I painted meadows with acrylic paints. One of my goals that year was to experience change. Namely, I was waiting to find myself in a better world at the end of the project, hoping for COVID vaccines and an end to the pandemic. Now, two years later with COVID here to stay, I think my project needs to take on a different flavor. Rather than urging the passage of time, I want to honor it. Each day of a particular season, a moment of life within it. 

ADELE: Last year I wrote: It’s okay to start and stop or change your process in the moment. Consider how to engage in the process without creating a framework that feels restrictive or overwhelming – minimize the overall number of steps so that it can be easier to access. Ease is so important in my creative process and the ritual itself can be the way to invite a bit more ease into the experience. Get simple. 

My work with clients is consistently focused on how to make caretaking tasks for the self more accessible. So when I reflect on the past six years that I have worked with this creative project, I notice how I morphed the directive to meet the needs of that time. Especially notable to me are the years that are not present: 2018 and 2020. These were two very challenging years in my life: the first year postpartum and the first year of the pandemic.

So as I continue practicing what I know logically to be supportive, I am exploring how the size of the project affects my ability to access the creative time. What if I start with a smaller amount of days? How might it affect my ability to sit down, create the space, and get curious with the process? 

LAURA: This is my first year participating in the 100 Day Project. I am not, by nature, a “joiner,” so I have always harbored a healthy skepticism of a project that requires me to be doing the same thing as everyone else at the same time. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found myself formulating a plan to participate this year. One reason I have hesitated to complete a project is that I did not want to feel bound by specific rules. Sure, I love rituals and structure, but really on terms that work for me. To then have to commit to forcing my creativity out on demand? Clearly I had a narrow-minded view of what this project could be. 

2023’s PROJECT

DOT: This year’s project is titled “27 Days in Winter” Yes–you read that right–I’m cutting my project down, and will be aiming for only 27 days of participation, from February 22 through March 20. Though I do think there was value in pushing through and completing the whole 100 days last year, this year I’m looking for something that’s more bound by the change in seasons. 

My project will be a photo journal capturing a moment each day in my life this winter. Winter always has a profound effect on me, as I don’t like being trapped indoors. Through this project, I am looking to create something beautiful to represent the hardest season. There is, of course, a harshness to winter, but also a certain clarity. I want to be more attuned to light and stillness. I tend to take fewer photos in winter, but the ones I’ve taken in the past have been some of my favorites. Twenty-seven days of pushing myself to notice and capture feels like a good way to add purpose to the hardest parts of the season–the end. The delight of the holidays feels like ancient history, yet the real warmth of spring still seems an eternity away.

Photos from previous winters.

ADELE: 20ish Days of Ten Minute Tangles. This year, I’m exploring a small-scale version of the series. I’m all about creating goals that meet your needs, taking time and capacity into consideration. This year I will use one of my favorite easy-to-access art making processes, the Zentagle Method of Drawing. I’ll use small pieces of paper and give myself a ten-minute time maximum, sitting down to draw about once per week. 

LAURA: My project is 100 Days of Enjoyment. This project is less about me creating something tangible and more about sharing ideas. The rough concept is that every 5 days, I will share 5 easy ways to make life simpler or more enjoyable. That way, I end up sharing 100 things, but I only have to commit to 20 specific days of posting. The idea to increase enjoyment came from a recent fight with a sock: as I was fixing the unruly sock that insisted on scrunching down in my shoe, I thought, “I should really just get rid of all the socks I own that do this.” Then I thought, “I wonder what it would be like for everyone to have permission to get rid of unruly socks,” and there was the inspiration for a 100 Day Project. I don’t employ a lot of advice-giving in my work, but I am definitely on board with getting rid of socks. 

THE TOOLS

DOT: I’m hoping, by choosing a photography project, to find both fluency and simplification. Last year, even though my project was very small in scale, I had to reach for a lot of supplies. First the tiles and paints, then my phone to take a photo, which was often frustrating because the light in my house is only good at certain times of the day. For this year’s project, the phone will be my only tool–containing the camera, the editing apps, and Instagram for posting each day’s photo. While in previous years I’ve posted project updates to my art account, because this year’s project is photo-based, I’ll be sharing them here. 

ADELE: Writing or drawing tools, paper, Zentangle patterns (or any lines and shapes in some sort of pattern), and a timer. My favorite tools I will likely use are: Micron PN pen and Zentangle bijou tiles. My current favorite timer is the Time Timer that counts down silently. 

LAURA: A list of good old-fashioned brainstorming ideas. 

THE RULES

DOT: One photo every day. The overall theme of the project will be that it is happening in winter, but the photos need not be clearly representative of “winter.” 

ADELE: I’ll give myself 10 minutes to create some sort of pattern. I will give myself permission to work with less time if needed or add time on if I get into a creative flow. The maximum time will help me keep the expectation on myself contained and accessible. 

LAURA: Every 5 days, share a list of 5 things focusing on a specific theme, making a total of 20 themes overall. The lists will be easy ways to focus on enjoyment in the everyday–simple tasks that create comfort and are easy to do on a regular basis. 

THE WHY

DOT: My intention is to have this year’s project be one of mindfulness—not to wish winter away, but to live more slowly. Photography always forces me to pay attention and slow down. Currently, I do not take photos every single day, so this will be part of the challenge. How can I pay attention to capture a photo even on days spent indoors? Doing a 27-day project (instead of 100) will have me wrapping up my work on the first day of spring. I’m hoping that this project will allow me to honor the season and not wish it away quite so frequently. 

ADELE: I know regular creative expression is incredibly helpful. And, just like you probably experience, knowing is different than engaging. I’m all about life hacks. How do I establish patterns and supportive frameworks to create the life experiences that feel good? In this season of life, I am exploring how to use contained segments of time to best support my needs. 

LAURA: I want to implement easy, accessible practices for grounding and self-care into my regular routine–a reorganization of my toolbox, you might say–and hopefully provide some inspiration for others to do the same. 

WANT IN? BRAINSTORMING QUESTIONS

If you’d like to participate in this year’s 100 Day Project (or modify the length like Adele and I are doing), it’s not too late! Here are a few generative questions that may help you as you formulate an idea for your project:

What medium are you drawn to right now?

Is there something you’d like to get better at doing? 

Is there something you’d like to spend more time doing? 

What are you excited about? 

What constraints can you add to this project to make it more manageable, compact, interesting, or achievable? 

Can you come up with a list of 5 things you want to do every day? 

Can you turn one of them into a project? 

You can follow along with this year’s project on Instagram: Dot | Adele | Laura. We’ll also be back here to check in as the project progresses. More soon! 

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