My New Year's Project

Welcome to my New Year's project, the 365+ Block Project!  For the coming year I will make at least one 3" quilt block each day.  There will actually be 378 blocks total so that the final piece will be 18 blocks wide by 21 blocks high, or 54" x 63".  I'm going public with this project in a blog because for the past six plus months I have struggled with getting into my studio to make art on anything like a regular basis.  This will, hopefully, make me accountable out loud, in public for actually showing up every single day to do something, anything creative.

To say that Resistance has been kicking my ass would be something of an understatement.  (If you have not read Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art, you should get a copy immediately and read it cover to cover.  I'm currently rereading it for something like the twelfth time.)  Anyone who works in any creative endeavor from painting to performance to entrepreneurship, actually anyone who is human, can identify with the battle against Resistance and just how brutal it can be. 

One of the many important things that Mr. Pressfield tells us is that we must be professionals about our approach to our work whether we are ever paid for it or not.  For the past six months I have been acting like an amateur, making the work too precious, too special, and not just showing up to work no matter what.  My favorite quote from the book is, "[The professional] reminds himself it's better to be in the arena getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot."

So it is time to get into the arena for me.  I may get stomped publicly for making really ugly, badly executed, or cheesy quilt blocks, but I will be doing it.  That's all that matters at this point.  So into the studio/arena for 2011!

Mary