Saturday, 30 June 2012

1000 Paintings, 1000 Days


Last November I challenged myself to 30 paintings in 30 days.  I did not hit 30 but I made it to 22 paintings. I may not have hit 30 paintings in 30 days, but the challenge gave me the insight and incentive to set some longer term goals.  We all set goals for ourselves, some tangible some not.  We try and fail each New Year, promising ourselves we will get more exercise, loose weight, spend less, save more money, quit drinking and smoking.  Most resolutions last less than 2 weeks.  I read somewhere that it takes a minimum of 21 days to make or break a habit and form new patterns. My little experiment in November demonstrated to me that forming a new habit is not only possible, but desirable as a life changing activity.  
I have always loved painting.  But like every endeavour, no matter how much we love it, we have to discipline ourselves to do it every day.  The easiest thing in the world is to not do something.  The hardest thing to do is to motivate ourselves and just start, each day, just get going.  If you are a runner, you will agree that on a cold wet day it is very difficult to get out that door and start your run.  Once you hit that pavement though it is marvelous.  It is the same with painting.  There is nothing more daunting than a blank canvas.
So to create a truly meaningful, life changing experience for myself, I decided to set a goal and challenge myself to the equivalent of a painting a day, with a set number of days to create a finite deadline to work to. It is unrealistic to think I can paint a painting each and every day with obligations of work, kids etc., but my goal will to be an equal number of paintings completed within the number of days defined.  Now the challenge is to pick a number.   10,000 has always been a magical number to me.  Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Outliers”, defines 10,000 hours as the key number to success in any endeavour.  The Beatles, Mozart, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Wayne Gretzky all had a minimum of 10,000 hours of “practice” in their respective fields before they had  the success that they are so well known for.  That being said, if I were to paint a painting a day for 10,000 days, I would be a mere 77 years old when I completed the challenge.  Now that is just way too overwhelming to come to terms with. I could repeat 30 again, 50 or maybe a round number like 100.  100 just doesn’t seem to cut it for me as this translates into a 3 month challenge.  Now a number like 1000, would certainly be life changing, This would truly become a positive daily practice.  
My Challenge: Starting tomorrow, Canada’s Birthday, I challenge myself to 1000 paintings in 1000 days.  1000 days from tomorrow, Sunday July 1st, 2012 will take me to Saturday, March 28th, 2015.  
I will blog the challenge, posting the paintings and commentary on my website and social media.   Blogging the challenge puts it out there for all to see - It more than commits me to keep the pace. I welcome all comments. 
To add another dimension to this challenge, I am going to sell each painting through my website, www.manleyart.com, with the price corresponding to the day of the challenge.  What this means is that not only will I be painting each day, I will be offering the paintings for sale, one painting at a time, one dollar at a time.  The day I post the painting is the price.  The first day the painting will be $1.00, the second painting will be $2.00, the 30th, $30.00, and so on up to $1000.  Each painting will increase in value with each sale.  
Now I anticipate there will be a lot of people criticize me calling this a gimmick. I know a few gallery owners who will be pissed!  Yeah, maybe it appears to be a gimmick, but that is not my intent.  I am looking at this challenge as a motivator for me to create a daily practice for what I love to do.   It is so easy not to do those things we love. Life is too short not to set these kinds of goals.  
Wish me luck! Once again I have likely bitten off more than I can chew!