366 – Completion

This completes one (leap) year of thing-a-day posts. The picture above is a sampling of some of the images I’ve created during the year. As I reflect on what happened, I’m proud of a lot of the things I’ve accomplished and thought I would share some thoughts about the experience. 
  
Doing one creative thing every day forced me to tackle more personal projects than I ever have before. It is quite a self inflicted commitment, but one worth undertaking. When you have to do something creative everyday, the only way that such a project will work is if you go beyond what you’re comfortable with. You have to get over your fear of things not being perfect and accept the result of your work. I feel as if I’ve gained confidence that I can create meaningful work here and now, instead of waiting for creativity to strike. I find that the fabled ‘writer’s block’ is caused by stagnation and a lack of experimentation.
 
If I had to highlight some of my favorite projects, building custom electronics and getting more and more comfortable with DIY projects was one of the most rewarding things I worked on. Using tools that I’ve made is something I hope to continue. I also enjoyed participating in the Disquiet Junto, which was started in January 2012 as well. What I enjoyed most about that experience was the community of musicians and positive feedback that we gave each other. The Junto was also all about using limitations as a way to jump-start creativity, another important tool in anybody’s toolbox. In 2012, I also started experimenting with tape loops more and I’m finding that this also seems to go well with my gravitation more towards a ‘handmade’ aesthetic in my music and further away from using the computer.
 
I plan to continue blogging here and updating with posts about my creative projects. I have many goals for the year 2013 and I’m excited to work on bigger projects, such as recording my second album. So many of the things I’ve discovered this year will be used in my future work.
 
Finally,thank you to everyone who followed my progress this past year and encouraged me.
 
-Jonny