#100daysofchangingskies

The 100-Day Project sponsored by The Great Discontent (https://thegreatdiscontent.com/100days) and Elle Luna ended over a month ago and yet I am still taking and posting sky photos for my chosen project, #100daysofchangingskies. This project (that began on April 6 and officially ended on July 16) is described as “a celebration of process that encourages everyone to participate in 100 days of making. The great surrender is the process; showing up day after day is the goal. For the 100-Day Project, it’s not about fetishizing finished products—it’s about the process.”

When I continued to post sky photos on Instagram four days after the project ended, my niece commented, “Auntie, I thought you finished your 100-Day Project?” to which I replied, “Yes, but I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’ve extended it to #1000daysofchangingskies.”

I guess in some ways this project is akin to Ann Voscamp’s book “One Thousand Gifts”. In her book, she writes about keeping a list of daily gifts in order to find a fuller life by observing the little things that often slip by unnoticed. This daily discipline helped her to embrace life with a heart of gratitude.

For me, through this project, I’ve learned to “see” the ever-changing creative gifts held in the wide expanse of sky soaring above me – enveloping me – pulling my eyes skyward – causing me to look up, slow down, and notice – even if for a fleeting moment in a Safeway parking lot.

Although I had an extensive list of ideas for my 100-Day Project, I chose to photograph the sky. I knew I was tired; bone-weary from my teaching load, and had little creative energy left. “Yes,” I reasoned, “I can notice and photograph the sky every day for 100 days.” And so the project began.

My first photos show bare-bone trees stretching to an impossibly blue early spring sky.

The photos gradually shift to contain buds, blossoms, and birdsong – then fall on unimaginable shades of green.

Each photo has a memory – a moment caught in time – and many contain a story. I played around with filters, apps, and even time-lapse video; capturing sunrises and sunsets, geese flying in v-formation honking wildly, and clouds forever shifting. It wasn’t so much about the quality of the photos (almost all taken with just my iPhone), but about the process of being present – of slowing down and really seeing the world around me.

Baseball season began – and photos emerged from evenings spent at various baseball diamonds – from games in the pouring rain, to deepening sunsets, and endless blue skies above the field amid the cheers and “cracks” of bat on ball.

I learned that it’s okay to take “messy” photos – that manmade features like buildings, poles, power-lines, and lampposts add interesting shapes and lines.

While out driving around town on errands, I pulled over numerous times as the skies drew me to the sides of the road to capture an interesting cloud formation or a late spring hail storm.

Some photos show the same tree photographed repeatedly, but there is nothing static about these shots – each one bathed in the newness of a new day.

Some shots show sunlight split sideways -breaking through clouds, leaves, or creating sunbursts and solar flares. I began to explore new ways of seeing changing skies – through stained glass, off mirrored high-rise buildings, reflected in a water, or even the explosion of fireworks against the black night sky.

When I first began this project I was worried that things would get boring. What if there was nothing interesting to photograph for 100 days? But, like looking for 1000 gifts, the more you look, the more you see. (And the more I posted, the more others began to fall under the spell of the changing skies. Many commented that they too were now taking time to look up and notice the sky.)

As I “listened” to the sky I could hear the echo of God’s creation song:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the works of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth;
their word to the ends of the earth.”

Psalm 19:1-4

Somehow I knew, that in my noticing, in my listening, in my seeing, I was participating in the creative act reminding me that, because I am made in God’s image, I too, am an artist.

So, the official 100-Day Project has ended and we have had our Vancouver celebration party – but the artistic awakening has just begun. I look forward to digging into another 100-Day Project event in the future. Won’t you join the adventure?

(To see projects of participants from over 65 countries use #100DayProject on Instagram. To see more of my work, follow me on Instagram at KFEDORUK. You can also type in #100daysofchangingskies to see more of my photographs from this project.)