A new project/hobby/idea.

Waaaaaay back when (although less than a year ago, as will become obvious) my friend Erin told me about a great weblog called Skull A Day. I have loved it with a quietly mad passion since and have been following it a little bit enviously. The creator is such a talented artist, and pushes his artistic limits on a daily basis with his skulls.

Well, it's inspired me so much that I've gone insane as a result. I've decided to do my own year-long art project and document it in a weblog! I'm writing about it now so that I don't chicken out, but I plan to start it on the first of January. The project will be called 365 Masks, and I'll create a mask for each day of the year in 2008.

Like the skull guy I won't be imposing silly rules on myself; ie. the mask having to be started and finished on the day it's posted. Probably many of them will be ongoing projects, and some will be quick and easy pieces that took barely a few minutes to create. I want to stretch my artistic wings with this and force myself to think beyond the self-imposed limitations I sometimes suffer from. I'm hoping this will push me to try things I wouldn't normally, and become more imaginative and fearless in technique and media.

For the most part the masks will all be based on a simple template that I can draw on, paint on, sculpt on or whatever. I'll use recycled materials whenever possible to create my masks, and the mask base will always be made out of recycled cardboard from cereal boxes and whatnot unless the mask material is made out of something that doesn't require a base. Some masks will be really very bizarre, and some will be ... well, ordinary. In the end I want to end up with a large and eclectic collection of unique masks that helped me grow as an artist.

What do you think?