Something creative...every day

I want to mention something 'cross-pollinating'-ly fantastic that an old friend in Richmond, VA (and beyond) is doing, and promoting. His name is Noah Scalin, and he is the founder and director of a socially-conscious design firm, ALR. Noah started a personal daily creative project back in 2007: making an artistic skull every day for a year - the 'Skull-A-Day' project. What happened next was remarkable - leading to a great interactive following online, a Webby Award, a book, and even such crazy things as a spot on Martha Stewart's t.v. show! As he has talked to other people who have done their own daily projects for a year, too, he realized how important and transformative connecting to your creativity, every day, can be.

This eventually led to his next big project, a book designed to guide people through their own daily/regular project. The book (and blog - where you can submit what daily creative project you are working on, and see what others are doing) is called 365: A Daily Creativity Journal. The book is designed to be used, and to give inspiration.

It has already inspired my artistic and creative sister-in-law, Heidi Rugg, founder and Director of Barefoot Puppets (and writer of a blog herself), to start her own daily project: a puppet-a-day! It will start on Thursday - you can follow it here.

She has also called to my attention a related article (mentioned and linked to on her blog), that points to a disturbing trend in America - it appears that creativity in American children is on the decline. And this at a time when we are going to need to be perhaps more creative than ever, to face the challenges of peak oil and climate change; according to the research cited in the article, creativity is a bigger indicator of success than IQ. (Heidi suggests we all start to make puppets! And become puppeteers!)

Reading Noah's book (and this article) has encouraged me to be more dedicated to this project (doing it, not just conceptualizing...!), and to think about what other (purely fun!) creative things I could do every day for a year. I have an extensive post card collection, a love of receiving and sending 'snail mail' - and a desire to keep the dying art of hand-written correspondence alive.

Does anyone want a postcard? Please post a comment and let me know if so - I'll write to get your address (if I don't have it already) and put you on the list! Who will be first?

Happy creating, everybody! (And remember - it's important, not just fun! Spread the word!)