100 Days of Groot: A daily creative challenge
100 Day Challenge
For the past few years, I’ve committed to the 100 Day Project—a self-imposed creative constraint challenge that prioritizes showing up over making something perfect. When COVID-19 hit, that practice became harder and like many my attention span shorter. The pressure to be productive clashed with a very real need for comfort, levity, and joy. For subject matter I turned to one of my favorite topics: dogs.
Which is where Groot comes in. A three-year-old English Bulldog rescue, he is lazy in a way that feels almost philosophical. He produces more bodily noises (and smells) that defy what’s possible. And he has exactly one facial expression: That of total indifference. He is, without question, the best worst dog I’ve ever had.
❋
100 Days of Groot » April 2020-June 2020
This challenge isn’t about polish, perfection or output. It was about permission—to explore, to respond, to make without overthinking. Some days it made sense. Some days it didn’t. None of that mattered. What mattered was to show up each day and make.
❋
What mattered was the act of making itself.
100 Days of Groot
April 2020-June 2020
Which is what I did. Every day time was set aside to create using the same subject matter, the dog. He became a visual documentation of the moments my family was experiencing during lockdown. And it took real collaboration to recreate those. Working with an animal, findings props, and making backgrounds became a family event.
From masks to missed events, countless home projects, so many walks and board games, for months little moments of our lives were reflected and recreated during those 100 days. Some days it could be trying to get the dog to look like he is playing scrabble (it sort of worked) to making animated gifs. If we were doing it, the dog was recreating it, and I was photographing it and sharing it through social media.
100 Days of Groot
April 2020-June 2020
Illustrations, photos, videos, infographics. It felt endless what you could do. And so I did. Experimenting and creating in ways that brought joy and curiosity to making.
In a moment when the world felt heavy, the simple act of making something every day—something that made me (and others) smile—was enough.
Sharing through social media, Groot started to gain a following. So much so, that people would reach out letting us know how much they looked forward to seeing him every day.
