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:
Halloween Scene: October 24-31, 2024
The Mission: For Halloween, recreate a scene from your favorite scary movie, using whatever medium you like - draw, paint, sculpt, collage, diorama, whatever...
Street Art: October 10-24, 2024
The Mission: Take a picture or several pictures of street art you see around you this week. Write a short poem inspired by what you saw...
Inktober: September 26-October 10, 2024
The Mission: Jake Parker created Inktober as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits by creating a drawing in ink every day in October. We only have a week, so let’s make our assignment to make three ink drawings, as simple or complex as you want. Two rules: 1. Use black ink only. 2. Choose your three drawing subjects from the official list of 2024 Inktober prompts...
Vote!: September 19-26, 2024
The Mission: This week, renowned artist Shepard Fairey visited our town to install five wheat paste murals that encourage voting. For our next assignment, design a poster, flyer, or mural of your own that encourages people to vote...
Marker Nostalgia: September 12-19, 2024
The Mission: Relive your childhood in two ways by using markers (Crayola, Sharpie, whatever you’ve got) to make a drawing of a place or thing that you miss from when you were a kid...
Pop Art: September 5-12, 2024
The Mission: Create a piece of Pop Art, using imagery from popular culture, advertising, or other familiar materials. Use whatever artistic medium you like to create your art...
Labor Day Combo: August 29-September 5, 2024
The Mission: Labor Day Weekend falls during this week’s assignment. Document how you spend your end-of-Summer, holiday long weekend, using at least two different mediums (media?) combined into one submission - photos, original art, collage, prose, poetry, music, whatever you like…
Hidden Alphabet: August 22-29, 2024
The Mission: Find letters of the alphabet in the shapes of nature, objects, architecture, and more. Photograph them and arrange them to spell a word, phrase, or the entire alphabet…
Reflection Photo: August 15-22, 2024
The Mission: Take a photo (or photos) of a reflection. The reflection can be a person or an object or part of nature/scenery - whatever. And it can be reflecting in water, a mirror, or anything else…
Olympic Logo: August 8-15, 2024
The Mission: The Olympics will come to a close this week, and the flag will be handed off to the next host city. Pretend that, instead of Los Angeles, the 2028 Summer Olympics are coming to a town of your choosing - your current town, the town you grew up in, somewhere you love to visit, etc. Design the official Olympic logo for the 2028 games in your chosen town…
Memorial to Loss: August 1-8 2024
The Mission: This week marks the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting that occurred in Dayton, Ohio, as well as the dedication of a memorial to that event and those lost and affected by it. For this week’s assignment, write poetry or prose that serves as a memorial to someone you lost or others that have been lost or affected by an event…
The Quiet World: July 25-August 1 2024
The Mission: Our local art museum currently has an exhibit on Edward Hopper, highlighting his tendency to depict mundane, everyday life with a sense of loneliness or isolation. For this assignment, make art of your choice that shows a quiet, isolated, mundane part of everyday life…
T-shirt Design: July 18-25 2024
The Mission: Part One: Create your own design for a T-shirt you would wear, using whatever medium you like - marker, crayon, computer, whatever - and show how it would look on a shirt. Part Two: Quickly draw a picture of anything you like, the more random the better. The drawing doesn’t have to be good at all, just fun. Then come up with a random short phrase - again, the more random the better. Send both to me along with your other submission, and I will mix and match everyone’s drawings and phrases to come up with some unique (and hopefully funny) T-shirt designs.…
Guerilla Kindness: July 4-18 2024
The Mission: Create a small piece of art and place it in a public location for others to find and enjoy. It can have a positive or uplifting message if you like, or it can simply be a piece of art that brings a bit of joy into someone’s life when they stumble upon it…
National Anthem: June 27-July 4 2024
The Mission: Unpopular opinion: “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not a good national anthem. As we head into Independence Day, this week’s assignment is to write a new one. You can choose to write lyrics that fit our current anthem’s melody, write something entirely new, or even write a national anthem for a completely different country than ours, existing or imaginary. This is primarily a writing assignment, but if you can sing or play an instrument, feel free to record your anthem for us to hear!…
Pointillism: June 20-27 2024
The Mission: Experiment with the technique of Pointillism to create artwork through dots of color, using paint, marker, or another medium…
Fathers: June 13-20 2024
The Mission: Honor Father’s Day by choosing one of two art options about your father or a father figure in your life: You may either write an ode to your father (figure) or create a portrait (realistic or abstract) of him…
Ocean Art: May 30-June 13 2024
The Mission: This is self-serving, since I’m in Rhode Island this week, but let’s see you channel your inner Winslow Homer or Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse and give us your best moody, ocean-themed art. Any medium you like - just make art that represents the ocean in some way…
Memorial: May 23-30 2024
The Mission: Memorial Day falls this week. Create your own memorial to someone or something. It does not have to (but can, if you wish) have anything to do with the military - it can be anything you wish to commemorate, in any artistic medium you like…
Still Life: May 16-23 2024
The Mission: Set up a still life arrangement of inanimate objects of your choice. Take a photo of your arrangement to show us what it looked like, then create your own still life artwork, rendering that arrangement in whatever medium you prefer (paint, sketch, collage, etc.)…