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:
Hand Turkey: November 17-24, 2022
The Mission: Throwback to elementary school! Trace your hand and turn it into a turkey. Decorate the turkey however you like. You can use construction paper like the old days, or whatever other medium you want…
Portrait: November 3-17, 2022
The Mission: Create a portrait of someone you know. Photography, paint, sketch, or whatever medium you like…
Concert Poster: October 27-November 3, 2022
The Mission: Create your own concert poster. Could be for a band you love or a fake band you make up. Could be for a show you attended or one you’d love to attend. Decorate however you like, in some creative way. Paint, crayon, computer, actual printing, or whatever medium you choose. Bonus points if the artwork gives a nod to the city or location hosting the concert in some way…
Jack-o’-lantern: October 20-27, 2022
The Mission: Let’s get our Halloween on and make jack-o’-lanterns this week. Get a pumpkin, scoop out its guts, carve it in any way you see fit, and light it up for a photo you can submit here…
Sculpture from Unexpected Materials: October 13-20, 2022
The Mission: Make a sculpture out of unexpected materials. Theme, style, size, complexity, etc. are all your choice, as long as the materials you use are not what we would expect to see the sculpture made from…
Haiku Your Week: October 6-13, 2022
The Mission: Write seven haikus - one for each day of your week (Oct. 7-13). Each one should be about something that happened in your life that day. Title each one with the day of the week it’s about…
Synesthesia: September 29-October 6, 2022
The Mission: Choose a song to listen to. While you listen to the song, create visual art of some kind — it does not have to be a painting — could be a sketch or a collage or whatever. Let the song inspire you and try to recreate some version of what you “see” or feel when you listen to it…
Diorama: September 22-29, 2022
The Mission: We’re going back to elementary school book reports this week! Grab those old shoe boxes and your crafting materials and create a diorama. For your topic, have your diorama depict a recent scene from your life. Or, if that’s too depressing, depict a scene of you enjoying life in a place you’d like to visit…
POV Sketches: 3 Moments in Time: September 15-22, 2022
The Mission: Three times this week (most likely in three different places), stop what you’re doing and sketch the scene in front of you. Submit your three sketches, labeled with the date, time, and location where you were. Bonus points if you find some common theme among the three…
Fridge Magnet Poetry: September 8-15, 2022
The Mission: Fridge Magnet Poetry: Use any number of the words below in any order to create a poem. Subject, length, etc. are all your choice, but you must use these words and only these words…
Inspired by Architecture: September 1-8, 2022
The Mission: Choose a favorite architect, favorite building, or favorite architectural style in general. Let that architecture inspire you to create art of any kind you choose. Include a photo of the architecture that inspired you with your submission, so we can see how it is reflected in your art.
Swatches: August 25-September 1, 2022
The Mission: Gather a supply of single color swatches (raid the paint aisle at Lowe’s, round up some fabric samples, or make your own swatches - as long as each is a small rectangle or square of one color, it’ll work). Make a piece of art using these swatches - a mosaic, a sculpture, whatever you like…
Amateur Forgeries: August 11-25, 2022
The Mission: Pick an existing work of art and attempt to recreate it yourself. Doesn’t matter how good or bad your result is, or how faithful to the original it looks - just mimic it in whatever way you like, using whatever medium you choose…
Creative Squiggles: August 4-11, 2022
The Mission: Have someone draw four random shapes for you - nothing complicated - a squiggle, a simple shape, a series of lines, etc. Take those shapes and turn them into four drawings, incorporating the original shape into each of the drawings…
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…