Andy 365 - Everyday Art » Notices

With the end in sight

Andy Erickson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:53:36 +0000

Now that I’m close to the end of my year long project (under 20 days to go) I thought I should start sharing with you what I’m taking away from this experience.

First off, I think that most of the work is NOT a fair representation of my work. About 90% of it I wish would have never seen the light of day. That is why this experiment is becoming very interesting. I’ve gotten from a few people that the fact that I post something every day, and that I don’t censor what makes it to the site, is what’s interesting to them. They enjoy seeing the process, even though it hurts me sometimes to look back on some of it.

For probably the last 100 days or so, I felt like doing this project was a big mistake. I felt bad about it, I was wishing it would turn out to be something completely different than it is. I then had a conversation with my friend Scott, and he boosted my spirits about it, giving me a little motivation to finish out the project with a little style. About the same time as this conversation, I went to my homepage (www.andyerickson.net) and noticed how much I like my randomized mosaic of the art project on that page. They both made me look at the project as a whole, and not at it’s individual parts. The whole year long project is the art, not the daily entries.What I’m doing, not what I’m producing is where the art is. As it always is, life is the art.

I’m going to try and throw in some more narratives into the blog before I end it in a few weeks. I need to get these ideas off my chest, and hopefully help you understand what I was trying to do this whole year.

Correction

Andy Erickson — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:05:54 +0000

Well, it looks like either no one is looking, or no one is playing attention, because I just had to do a few days worth of corrections because I got off on numbering my days. Well, if you feel like you want to true story, take a look back over the past few entries.

Google Rank

Andy Erickson — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:30:55 +0000

While I was looking through my site analytics, I noticed that the site was getting a decent amount of hits for the search term “Quad City Artists”. I did that search, and I’m coming up about fourth on the first results page. That’s pretty awesome, if I can pat myself on the back for a bit. I hope that will help get the word out more about me, but it also feels like I need to get some more quality work on the site.

Speaking of that, I apologize if my work quality is lacking. March has been an extremely busy month for my family, and I kept finding myself again, stuck at the end of the day and still needing to do something. I’ll try and get you more something of substance.

One again, I’ll also plead with you to help me get the word out. The great search rankings will help, but word of mouth will help even more. And also, you can yourself, and your friends, become a fan of me on Facebook.

A little help?

Andy Erickson — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:35:42 +0000

Okay, so I’ve had this idea for a painting for a long time now, but I’ve yet to find the canvas I want for it. So I guess what I’m asking for is does anyone have a giant sheet of metal I can have? I don’t care if it’s clean, dirty, rusty, banged up, what type of metal, whatever. And the larger, the better. I’ll come and pick it up (as long as the distance is within reason). If you’ve got more than one, even better. Let me know if anyone can help out, please just use the contact form on this site to let me know.

Thanks for your help, and if I find what I’m looking for, it will for sure end up on the site.

Site Addition – Mosaic

Andy Erickson — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:49:32 +0000

Now that I’ve reached a pretty substantial number of pieces on the site, I’ve made an addition to the homepage. I’ve added a mosaic of thumbnails of everything I’ve uploaded. It’s a very cool way to look at it all. There’s a random preview version of it on the homepage, but then there’s the mosaic with everything uploaded here. Let me know what you think!

As Day 100 Approaches

Andy Erickson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:23:48 +0000

First off, I’d like to apologize for some of the quality of the art the past week. I was enjoying my new drawing style, but I think I’ve become bored with it for now. I’m thinking of working on a multi-day project to create a true comic book style drawing, similar to what my friend Scott is doing over at his site.

I also did the math, and it looks like I’m only one day off of having my 100 day of art falling on Christmas. That would have been too cool for that to happen. Oh well, it’s still exciting that I’ve gone this far. I need to prioritize better and get my projects done sometime before 10pm at night. That’s part of the reason the quality have been lacking.

Also, I don’t know if no one is watching this blog, or if everyone is just RSSing it, but the few comments I was getting have dropped off. One reason I did this was to get some criticism, so if you’ve got something to say and help me out, please do so.

Thanks again for watching.

Notice – So Far So Good

Andy Erickson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:26:30 +0000

I can’t believe that I’ve kept up this project this long. I’ll be honest, there are some days that it feels like a chore, but for as many days that there are these, I almost always end the day glad I forced myself to do the work. Some of the pieces have worked well, some not so well, but that’s the nature of this beast. I’m not sure how big of a following I have going, but if you’ve been liking watch me work through my issues, then please pass on the word about this blog. Webdisaster has given me a few good promotions, which has been much appreciated. He is doing a similar project to mine over on his site.

There is also one thing that I find hard to believe, and that is how fast 50+ days have gone by. I’ve never really counted the days like I have since starting this project, and it really is amazing how it goes. It’s almost a performance piece in itself.

Well, keep the feedback coming, and I look forward to the remaining 300+ days.

webdisaster.net

Andy Erickson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:47:09 +0000

A friend and co-worker of mine has also recently started a daily art blog, attempting to do one 15 minute sketch a day. He also works on his own web-comic which is also found on the same site. Please, show him as much love as you show me.

webdisaster.net

Week 1 – Satisfactory Start

Andy Erickson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:38:30 +0000

Well, it looks like I’ve survived this experiment for a week now, and I think things are going okay. I really would like to move away from just doing drawings and doodles now and try to produce some more prints or paintings.

Now, I want to clarify that I’m posting EVERYTHING that I’m making, whether if it’s crap or not. I want everyone to see the progression of going from 0 to 60 (or 365 in my case). This is just not a showcase of my art, but hopefully a tool to let people know that there is a lot more going on with the artistic process than they may think. Well, at least with my artistic process.

Any suggestions and criticisms are more than welcome. Please don’t feel shy, if an artist can’t take criticism, then they are certainly not the the correct field.

The Beginning – September 17, 2009

Andy Erickson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:36:55 +0000

Today is day one of my attempt to create one piece of art a day, for 365 days. It might be as small as a sketch (most will probably be this) or something as large as a full painting, but there will be something posted daily. I know of a couple of times in the next year where this may get to be tricky, from being out of time, and other engagements, but I will post. It might be only a photo of the sketch, instead of a scan, but it will make it online.

So, I hope you enjoy what I’m attempting to do, and follow my daily trials as much as you can. Also, please feel free to comment on what I post. I’ll need the feedback.

Thank you for your time!
Andy Erickson