#100DayProject
“Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”
“Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”
–A Tanzanian Proverb
Discovery Through Repetition
The #100dayproject begins on February 23rd. I’ve participated in it for many years, as it encourages me to make marks daily. I partake in many daily small adventures and think often of a conversation with a yoga teacher from long ago:
“Do you practice everyday?” I asked her.
“I commit to five minutes a day,” she said. “Some days it will turn into hours, other days, just five minutes.”
A weight was lifted when she told me this, and I’ve been doing yoga daily, since. I use the 5-minute practice in other parts of my life, too. It doesn’t matter how long I spend with each, just that I start the doing and it’s true - little by little becomes a lot.
It can be so difficult to see growth in ongoing projects. And the more growing, the more discerning one gets, and more critical. The end gets further away or blurrier with every step forward. Growth is easier to chart when one is so new at a thing. This is why I love starting new projects and finding new materials to play with. I jump into every new project like my dog Pearl begins every day — with carefree joy, ears-a-flapping!
Sometimes it feels senseless, this always starting over. But what a melancholic perspective. We build on things. Yoga may seem to have nothing to do with mark making but of course everything is connected in this push and pull of time and experience and determination.
My left-handed project lasted over three years. My poetry project lasted for a year and a half. I drew a plant a day for three 100-day projects. Each one of these adventures led me down paths of deeper understanding of so many things. I though I’ve stopped the daily practice, I haven’t stopped any of these things. This year I will make prints on my new tiny printing press.
Other than a vague memory of linoleum block printing — or was that potato printing? My own memory or the collective memory of childhood? — I have never made a print. I was lured in by the beautiful photography and adorable presses of the Open Press Project.
When the largest of the littles arrived, I became instantly smitten and have been playing with marks and ink and paper and even printing another one with Søren on his now old 3-D printer.
My dad called when he read about the ending of the projects: “You’ve stopped your left-handed drawings, Margaux, and your poems, and what else, what are you working on?” he asked with maybe worry. “Well, I can’t do all the things every day and sometimes things have an end. I mean, actually, always things have an end. That isn’t true either, but you know what I mean. We humans, we have things with ends and we too end. It is a tangle.” I didn’t actually say this to him.
But maybe he wants to see me finish something. Oh dear, it is a melancholy day.
But, a poem:
Points
He said I missed the point
that it was never about enough
and still, I wonder
As for you, will you partake in the #100dayproject? Have you chosen a material or subject?
ps: We made a #100dayproject bookbinding tutorial a few years ago. You can find it here
Some experiments in printing
Søren and I have been trying to print the medium press from the Open Press Project. His old 3-D printer is giving us trouble, but here is the start:
The satisfying breaking away of the tree support! Unfortunately, the printer is misfiring and we’ve run out of time (this week) to play. We are heading to the Dominican Republic tomorrow and I was trying to make a smaller one to bring with me!
I really want one of these presses to try it. I have gone back and forth about whether to order one already made or try to find some place local to print one. Or to maybe buy a 3-d printer....
I am so intrigued by this printing press. I have been thinking a lot lately about my lithography class in college, and wanting to find a way to print at home. Then I found your substack about this press! Where do get your printing supplies? Are you printing on watercolor paper?