The idea: take a picture of your hand doing something everyday

This idea was inspired by a section in Scott Belsky‘s book, Making Ideas Happen, about Noah Kalina‘s project “Everyday.”  Everyday has been created twice.  In 2006, Kalina uploaded a vide

o on youtube with six years worth of pictures.  He took one every night and made a video of them that lasted a little over five minutes.

Last year Kalina uploaded his second video, “Noah takes a photo of himself everyday for 12.5 years.”  Obviously, his work has continued.

This idea has been done by many different people, some of whom were inspired by Kalina and some of whom inspired him.  I’ve thought from time to time about doing this because it seems like a fun project.  However, honestly, I have too many things that I already do everyday.  Right now it stands at writing in my journal, blogging, and exercising (either yoga or crunches before bed).  That’s more than enough to be getting on with.

Even so, I kept musing.  A lot of people have done faces, but I started to think it might be interesting to take a picture of your hand everyday.  Our hands are what set us apart from so many other animals with our opposable thumbs and whatnot.  They are a source of inspiration to me.  Just about everything I do as an artist is done with my hands.  Playing guitar and piano, painting, drawing, knitting, writing, even typing like I am right now.  I’ve spent some time thinking about how I would continue to make art if I no longer had the use of my hands and have actually come up with some interesting ideas, but that’s for another time.

Someday I would like to do this project.  Or perhaps a community version, have a bunch of people take pictures of their hands doing something they love to do (and yes, I know, there’s no w

ay of saying that without it possibly sounding strange).  Who knows.  For now, it’ll stay in the Idea Can.