"Valentine to Myself" Art journal, envelope made with fine papers.
I don't have a "special someone" in my life right now, but I do have a love story to tell: I love my blog.
Early in this project, on Day 8, I mused about the benefits of making some kind of art every day. It keeps the creativity channel open, gives me a reason to try new things, is bound to bring about improvement, etc. But I have made this commitment to myself before; my old art journals are sprinkled with broken promises to myself.
A book I've been reading, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin, makes sense of my current success at daily art-making. I am an "Obliger": I'm more compelled by external expectations than by my internal expectations of myself. So promising myself I would do a page in my art journal every day didn't work, but making my commitment public by posting every day on my blog (and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), thus creating expectations outside of myself, is working like a charm. Having MailChimp automatically send out each day's blog post at midnight gives me a deadline too, which really seals the deal.
There are people who are enjoying following me on this adventure, and that's a wonderful added bonus. Whatever "exposure" it may generate is great too, of course. And I love the feedback I get. But most of all I love how my blog and the accompanying posts on social media are making me "just do it."
For today's art project, I made a Valentine to myself and my blog: a pretty envelope in my art journal, to hold a quote from Vincent Van Gogh: "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." It seems apt.
