Last week I promised that the Daily Hart would continue. I also promised that I would post this yesterday, but what can I say? No one’s perfect. But in all seriousness, I always knew that I wanted the Daily Hart to continue. Over the past year, this project quickly became the best part of my day, and I was sad to see the challenge come to an end earlier this month. That being said, I was also ready for it to be over. As much as I loved the Daily Hart and everything I learned as a result of it, it was also a lot of work. Honestly, if I hadn’t been in lockdown for seven months of it, I’m not sure I would have made it. Turns out, writing an article every day is incredibly time consuming. Who knew?
There was also the matter of the parameters I had decided on for this challenge. One of the most important guidelines that I set for myself was that I was only going to feature art that I liked. I did this because I wasn’t interested in putting anymore negativity into the world. That being said, I quickly realized that there are only so many ways you can say “I love this” before you start to sound like a broken record.
Along similar lines, I also found myself writing “I know nothing about this” quite a lot. To be fair, that was kind of the point. I started this project because I wanted to experience new art and artists. I wanted to discover mediums, genres, and cultures that I knew nothing about. And I did. A lot. But after a while, it started to feel like I was only skimming the surface of what there was to discover. I did a deep dive into the artworks and their cultural backgrounds as often as I could. But when you’ve committed to exploring a new artwork every day for a whole year, there simply isn’t time to do a deep dive on each one. Not when I have several full time jobs, another weekly blog, and some semblance of a social life.
Which brings me back to my original question. How do I continue the Daily Hart in a way that introduces more variety in what I am writing, goes deeper into learning about the art I’m exploring, and is much more manageable in scope? I’ve been pondering this question for the past couple of weeks, and I think I’ve finally come up with a plan that will work. Going forward, the Daily Hart will continue to be a yearly challenge. Every year, I will set new parameters for the year ahead based on what I want to learn and the amount of time I can realistically dedicate to this project. As much as I would love to do this full time, all those pesky bills still need to be paid, so I will be posting on a weekly schedule for the foreseeable future.
I will also continue to chronicle each challenge on social media. If you would like to follow along, please do so. Knowing that people actually read these posts is a huge inspiration to keep going. That being said, I am still spectacularly bad at social media. Case in point, it’s been a year and I only have eight Twitter followers. Therefore, I will be shutting down that account at the end of this month, but Facebook and Instagram will continue. Feel free to follow me there, or you can subscribe to my newsletter below.
Last but not least, I’ll bet you’re wondering what the next Daily Hart challenge will be. It’s a fair question, and while I have an idea, I’m still deciding on the details. Therefore, I will be back next week to announce the next yearly challenge, and the Daily Hart part II will begin in November. Until then, as always, thank you for joining me on this journey. When I started this project a year ago, I never imagined that I would be laying the groundwork for a multi-year discovery of arts and culture. But here we are. I can’t wait to get started again.
Suggestions for artists I should check out? Please contact me with your ideas.
