During yoga class the other day, my teacher was talking about the theme for the week - finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. She said something about "connection," and that stuck with me. During the rest of the class, I thought about the concept of connection as it relates to Make28.
Make28 is a project that was dreamed up by my online friend, Consumatron. He set a goal for himself to create a video every day in February, and he challenged everyone to join him by making something every day as well. So a few of us joined in and have also been making stuff - food, paintings, videos, drawings, journeys, enemies, music...
This project has created many connections, the most obvious being the connections we made with each other. I've really enjoyed seeing what everyone's made, how they interpreted the concept of "making," and glimpsing a little bit of everyone's creative processes. I love to see how other people work, create, and solve problems, even in different disciplines.
In Fearless Creating, Eric Maisel mentions the importance of getting together with other artists. "If you are a novelist, when do you meet with painters, dancers, musicians, and filmmakers to talk about your mutual concerns? When do you meet to discuss selling art, managing depression, or surviving as a truthful witness in America? My estimate would be never. This is really too bad. ...you will surely suffocate if you live in a vacuum."
I think projects like Make28 can be an important part of a creative life, creating connections with others working on different things, but with the same goal.
During these 28 days, I've also made some less obvious connections. Just the act of sitting down and making something every day has helped me to connect more with my creativity. Even if what I made wasn't that great or if it's not related to bigger things I'm doing, I know that what I'm making now will inform something else that I make in the future.
Here's a collection of the things that I made during February:
You can see more in my Flickr set. And the whole Make28 Flickr pool.How do you make creative connections?
Oh, and Make28 will continue, so feel free to join in!