The creative journey can often be challenging, filled with the never-ending search for perfection and the pressure to produce work every day. But what if the key to unlocking true artistic growth lies in embracing the power of daily practice?
Creating something new every day can sound overwhelming, but for artists noah kalina, jonathan mannand justin aversanoIt has become a way of life. Each one has committed to a daily practice, to an art project that they join every day of the year. This daily practice has shaped their art, as well as their relationship with themselves and their communities.
Via Kalina Every day seriesMann’s song a day projectand Aversano Everyday is a gift collection, these artists have learned valuable lessons that can be applied to each artist’s creative endeavor and daily life. We spoke with them to learn more about these lessons and the struggles and rewards they’ve faced since committing to these ongoing projects.
noah kalina‘s Every day
Noah Kalina is a photographer and artist best known for Every day, a series of self-portraits spanning decades. Kalina began taking a daily photo of himself when he turned 19, on January 10, 2000. Now 42, his collection includes more than 8,400 self-portraits.
Kalina first shared these images in a span of time on YouTube six years after it began, on July 31, 2006. Since then, he has shared three other videos. In total, these pieces have more than 45.7 million views.
But growth doesn’t happen overnight and it can take a long time to see the results of a daily practice.
For Kalina, it took years of dedicated work before the world responded. “Years before I put the video on YouTube, in 2006, a friend suggested that I should do a time lapse, and I thought, ‘that’s so silly,’ he told nft now. “When I posted it, nothing happened for a week. Then it went viral. I had hundreds of emails, my website was down due to traffic, I was getting calls from Oprah and Ellen, and The Simpsons He even did a version of Homer.”
Kalina says she attributes the popularity of the project as much to her own dedication as to identification of the work. “Doing something over and over again is inherently fascinating to others. When the idea is so simple and all it takes is commitment, it’s easy for the viewer to put themselves in the shoes of the artist and reflect on his own life,” she explained. In this sense, Kalina argues that his commitment and persistence paid off.
On January 10, 2023, Kalina added a new dimension to the project with the release of every day.photoan interactive gallery of his Every day project. An evolving capsule of Noah’s life, the site offers a new way to explore the subtle yet profound impact of time. Each day is tagged with identifying traits, such as Kalina’s location, clothing, accessories, and beard length. Gallery visitors can coin each self-portrait as NFT.
As for what’s next for the Everyday project, Kalina shows no signs of stopping. In fact, it looks like she’s in it to the end. “There’s always the question with projects like this of ‘when does it end?’” she tells nft now. “I’m not really obsessed with doing it, and I’m not obsessed with myself. I just started, and at this point, there’s no point in stopping. And I think we all know how this ultimately ends.”
by Jonathan Mann song a day
Jonathan Mann is a singer-songwriter and internet sensation known for his 14-year commitment to the day job. He rose to fame with his song a day project, for which he writes and records a new original song every day. The song is then coined as an NFT, paired with an accompanying artwork, and auctioned off over the next 24 hours.
This unwavering dedication to his craft has earned Mann tens of thousands of followers and established him as a leading voice when it comes to daily practice and artistic self-expression. But Mann doesn’t think his work and practice are necessarily unique. “Most of the people I know, who are artists of all kinds, have some kind of daily practice. It’s never as structured as my ‘One Song a Day,’ but everyone I know works on a project every day. I think it’s what artists do,” he tells nft now.
While Mann’s consistency and commitment led to his popularity, he partly attributes his success to embracing imperfections, letting go, and allowing the work to be whatever it is. “You never know what’s going to happen when you sit down to do something. But the key is to give myself leeway, to give myself space to let the song be whatever it needs to be that day. For what there is space. Don’t put too much pressure on me. There is really nothing more than that, ”he explains.
While others may view Mann entirely through the lens of this project, he tells nft now that it’s important for him to remember that what’s known isn’t the same as himself.
“It’s pretty much the only thing I’m known for, so I would say in a broader sense, it totally defines me. But also, I like to regularly remind myself, Ram Dass-style, that we’re just playing a role. All the ambition and creativity, and even our relationships, are just stories that we tell ourselves and others,” he said. “If you take it all away, somewhere is the real ‘me’, and that has nothing to do with being a father, a son, a husband, a sing-along guy, an NFT brother, a musician, a fan. Bob Dylan etc. The things we do define us only to the extent that we live in a society. But there’s something deeper going on, and I try to remember it.”
Justin Aversano Everyday is a gift
Justin Aversano is a photographer, curator, creative director, and social entrepreneur perhaps best known for his Twin Flames collection, the best-selling NFT photography collection of all time. He also co-founded the digital art curation platform Quantum and the non-profit organization SaveArtSpace, whose goal is to bring community art to more public spaces.
In addition to these recognitions, Aversano created Everyday is a gift, a collection of polaroids taken every day for a year showing different people celebrating their birthdays. The chase often led him to wander the streets with a “Is it your birthday?” sign.
Reflecting on that moment, Aversano tells nft now that the project has come to dominate his life and habits. “Every day my only focus and goal was to find someone and make art. When that comes before eating, showering or anything, you get obsessed with the process and you get obsessed with the project,” he explained.
While his daily pursuit sounds daunting, he notes that the benefits were plentiful as well. “After the shutter clicks, there’s a relief, a calm. The camera can create that feeling when you have an idea like this,” says Aversano.
Like Mann, Aversano embraced imperfection throughout the project. He tells nft now: “I only took one photo a day, and whatever that photo was, it was the end product. I never did a redo. If the exposure was off, it saved it. I think it’s important.”
Ultimately, Aversano noted that the most important lesson he learned from his daily practice is “learn to live with the things you hate, learn to live with the things you think make you fail, and when you look at them and confront them, that it’s really what makes you better, that’s actually what makes you more diligent in your craft.”
