The horror… The horror.
Seems like there’s a lot of it around, these days. From pandemics and war to corruption, lies and the death of truth, it’s hard not to feel like we’re watching the end of the world in real time, while (as a popular meme says) somehow still having to go to work.
Welcome to the apocalypse.
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I believe in staying informed about what’s going on in the world. But, doing so has been hard on the ol’ “reason to keep getting out of bed in the morning” reserves lately. Everything seems terrible. Mostly because it is.
I felt the need to do something about that (for my own mental health and to try to inject something good into the world), and realized that the things that feed me and keep me sane usually revolve around creativity and art in all its forms.
I am not an artist by any stretch, but in addition to my love for consuming and enjoying others’ art, I do like to dabble in making art, despite not being very good at it. Finding the time and making myself do that is sometimes a struggle, and I do better when I’m given parameters - an assignment, a theme, some kind of structure, and maybe even a deadline.
I asked a couple of friends if they’d be interested in joining me in committing to weekly art assignments or “missions” as our own way of being defiant in the face of the apocalypse and its horrors. They stupidly said “yes.”
So, now we’re taking turns assigning art projects each Thursday, with our submissions due the following Thursday. The point isn’t necessarily to make “good” art - it’s just to commit to doing something creative with some regularity, and to enjoy seeing the art that others create.
If, like us, you feel the need for something fun and creative amongst the horror, you’re more than welcome to join us.
You’ll find the “rules” (loose as they may be) below.
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Each Thursday, a new “mission” (art assignment) will be posted below.Participants can devote as much or as little time and effort as they want and/or can afford that week. Spend five minutes jotting something on a napkin if that’s all you have time or energy for, or get carried away with a project and spend days on it - any amount of effort is welcome.
The point is not necessarily to make good art – it’s just to be accountable enough to others that you force yourself to make art of some kind each week, to share it with others, to get to enjoy others’ art, etc.
No one has to give any critique or suggestions or feedback at all. Of course you’re welcome to tell someone you really like their work, but this is not about criticism or even artistic feedback - it’s just for fun.
Submissions are due each Thursday by 7:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), but you can send them earlier that day or even earlier that week if you want.
For now (until/unless I come up with a better vehicle), projects are submitted by email to artpocalypsethursdays@gmail.com.
Attach a JPEG or PDF file of your artwork (if the assignment was written work, you could paste it in the body of the email instead of attaching, if you prefer).Along with your submission, include your name or (preferably) an alias you want to go by (Some of us feel more comfortable posting our art publicly under an alias instead of our actual names and, besides, it’s more fun that way). Bonus points if your alias is a reference to the movie Apocalypse Now.
Submission of your art is considered permission to include it on this website and/or associated social media accounts.
Don’t want to have your art viewed by the public? (even under an alias?) Totally understandable. Feel free to lurk and just enjoy what others create, or use the weekly missions to create art for yourself that you don’t share with us.
Submissions will be posted on this site for all to view - hopefully sometime on the Thursday they are due - perhaps slightly later when I’m busy. :)
The Missions:
Beautiful Nonsense: July 28-August 4, 2022
The Mission: Write a poem or a song verse including either phrases that don’t make sense but sound good or words that aren’t normally paired together (or both)…
Fake Flyer: July 21-28, 2022
The Mission: The flyers you see tacked to bulletin boards and telephone poles are almost always practical, advertising events, causes, and available services. Here's your chance to create a flyer that is impractical. Make a flyer that gives advice, shares something about your life, or promotes an imagined event…
Color Schemes: July 14-21, 2022
The Mission: Illustrate the same thing four times using monochromatic, complementary, achromatic, and analogous color schemes. Subject and medium are your choice…
Embellished Correspondence: July 7-14, 2022
The Mission: Send someone a letter or a package. Decorate the outside of the envelope or package in whatever way you like. Bonus points if the decoration provides clues to the topic of the letter or the contents of the package…
16 Items: June 30-July 7, 2022
The Mission: Ask a friend to write down a list of 16 items for you. The first 16 things they think of -- likely quite random. Find any sheet of 8.5 x 11" inch paper & fold it in half four times so that when unfolded, the creases result in 16 tiny little frames/panes. Grab a pen/pencil/marker/crayon/quill & the stack of 16 items your friend generated for you. Turn over one item at a time, and draw one item per square on your paper…
Summer Parody: June 23-30, 2022
The Mission: Write a parody of an existing work - a song, a poem, a scene from a play, whatever. The only rule is that you must either choose something that was written about summer and write a parody of it about something else - or choose something non-summer and write a summer-themed parody of it…
Cancel Culture: June 16-23, 2022
The Mission: Think of something relatively ubiquitous that you feel we should get rid of. Something that has run its course or never should’ve existed in the first place. Make a piece of art (style and medium of your choice) that shows what you’d like to cancel. Bonus points if you include a statement on why you think it has to go…
Natural Materials: June 9-16, 2022
The Mission: Make art using only natural materials. The materials and the type of art are up to you - Leaf collage? Rock sculpture? Painting with mud? Edible Arrangement? You choose…
The Divine Is in the Details: June 2-9, 2022
The Mission: Stop at a place that you pass daily/regularly, and take a photo - not too close up and not too far away. Bring that photo up on your computer and look at it for 3 minutes. Return to the location and take a few “detail” photos of the things that stood out to you…
Comic Strip: May 26-June 2, 2022
The Mission: Create a comic strip or graphic novelesque panel (three-block minimum) on the subject of your choice.…
Odes: In Praise of Unsung Objects: May 19-26, 2022
The Mission: Write an ode to something you wouldn’t ordinarily find elevated to the level of prosaic tribute but couldn’t get by without nonetheless. Write in whatever tone you’d like— just give attention this week to something which you tend to take for granted…
Paper Shapes: May 12-19, 2022
The Mission: Paper shapes: Cut geometric shapes out of paper and use them to make art of some kind. Use whatever kind of paper you like. The only rule is to use geometric shapes as opposed to free forms…
Documenting Emotion: May 5-12, 2022
The Mission: Pay close attention to your emotions. When you catch yourself really feeling something—strong anger, happiness, hopefulness, sorrow, love, whatever—stop what you’re doing and capture it in some way…
Redaction Poetry: April 28-May 5, 2022
The Mission: Redaction Poetry (aka: erasure poetry, aka: blackout poetry) Create a poem using any written source material by erasing or redacting the undesired words until a new “text” emerges…
Cardboard Art: April 21-28, 2022
The Mission: Make art of some kind out of or with cardboard/spare cardboard boxes…
Rubbing: Embellished Textures: April 14-21, 2022
The Mission: Using paper of your choice and a crayon or other material, make a rubbing of a texture you like. Embellish that rubbing in some artistic way of your choice…
Ekphrastic Poetry: April 7-14, 2022
The Mission: Using a painting other than your own from the previous mission (or photo from the one before that), write an ekphrastic poem embodying a voice, theme, description, etc. inspired from a fellow creator’s work.…
Symmetry - Painting on Note Cards: March 31-April 7, 2022
The Mission: This week's theme: symmetry. This week's medium: the "paint" of your choice. This week's "canvas": three to five 3x5 note cards or four to six 4x6 note cards…
Photos - Finding a Common Thread: March 24-31, 2022
The Mission: Take photos of three seemingly unrelated things (one photo of each thing), and find a way to relate them to each other - a common thread that bonds them together…
Reflection: March 17-24, 2022
The Mission: Let’s Reflect. Take the week to go back through your own writing. Any writing: polished pieces, certainly, but also journal entries, texts with friends, posts when you were in your favorite places, letters you wrote but never sent, reflections in the margins of books you loved, etc. Chose a line…