Day 24: like an ocean

Day 24/28: like an ocean When I first started therapy, I was barely holding myself above the water, barely keeping myself from drowning, and I knew I needed help. Now, two years later, I have a goal: to be like the ocean. I want to be strong and everlasting, to let my fury be known but also to provide comfort to the lives of those who seek my presence. I want to provide life to people, to rejuvenate those who spend time beside me. I want to become...

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Day 23: smudges

Day 23/28: smudges Somewhere along the line, my edges became smudged. I don’t really remember when it happened, but somewhere between my transition from Maryland to Rhode Island I lost the sharpness that defined me. It vanished in the packed boxes and the goodbyes, leaving behind grey smudges and blurry colors where my feelings leaked out. Smudges can’t ever be erased. They’re always there, like a shadow, even when you redraw the lines. They’ll...

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Day 22: Those who went before us

Day 22/28: those who went before us As much as we hope we don’t end up like our parents, each of us is a shadow, a reflection or even a patchwork quilt of our ancestors before us. And not all ancestors are blood-related. Who came before you? Who are your artistic or political or career or familial predecessors? Who’s shadow have you walked in and how does it feel? Brittany’s Ancestors Tynan’s Ancest...

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Day 21: (w)hole

day 21/28: (w)hole I am whole, but there is this hole inside of me that cannot be seen, cannot be touched or healed with anything but time. Brittany’s Tyna...

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Day 20: apple of my eye

Day 20/28: apple of my eye None of you will ever convince me this song by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is not the cutest thing ever I don’t care HOW OLD IT GETS.So what’s the apple of your eye? What’s being reflected there most often? What do you love the most? Brittany’s appleTynan’s app...

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Day 19: honestly.

Day 19/28: honestly "Honestly, I don’t care." "Honestly, why do I put up with you?" "Honestly, tell me how you feel." Brittany’s Moment of Honesty Tynan’s Moment of Hones...

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Day 18: lull & storm

Day 18/28: lull & storm ((TWO FOR TUESDAY));; There’s always a lull that settles over the earth before a storm. The wind isn’t blowing, the birds have all hidden themselves away, where everything is quiet. It’s peaceful, almost, a deep breath before the wave crashes down over the world. If you’ve ever been by the ocean before a storm, with the cloud lingering on the horizon, the smell actually changes. Everything sort of becomes sharp, and...

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Day 17: Dust

Day 17/28: dust I was always told at a young age that everything returns to dust eventually. The Lord created us that way, so that we can then replenish the earth in return. Of course, when I got older, I learned about science, how our molecules break down and cells die and fall apart and that’s why we become dust. Dust is comprised of lost things, of dirt of cells, things that are left behind. A lingering memento of something discarded...

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day 16: while everyone sleeps

Day 16/28: while everyone sleeps Today’s prompt is back to the general idea category. Maybe create something at night while everyone’s asleep, maybe depict people sleeping, maybe write something about a character that does something super secret while everyone else is sleeping. Pretty open-end here, even though it’s a little more specific that our one word prompts. ALSO we’re past halfway through the challenge, everyone! Stick with us! Brittany’s...

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Day 15: Echo Day 1

Brittany Today we’re gonna be playing with a form we adore here at 28 to Create: the echo poem(painting/song/cupcake/etc). The echo poem is a Surrealist technique where one person would write a poem on one side of a piece of paper and another person would respond to the right of it (usually in opposition to the first poem). It could go on and on and on until, say, ten people were all writing a new poem based on the poem before them based...

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Day 14: Nomads

Day 14/28: nomads OH IS TODAY VALENTINE'S DAY TOO BAD CAUSE THE PROMPT IS NOMADS. Nomads travel, usually in a group, where the the food (or the money or the safety) is. They wander from place to place, never settling on a physical home but a metaphysical one within their group. It was no easy like in humanity's early days and it's no easy life now. Nomads nowadays are either romanticized or spit upon. But, I mean, if we look at it backwards...

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Day 13: Uncomfortable

Day 13/28: uncomfortable  So many things can make us uncomfortable. A hard chair. Razor burn. Public presentations. Talking about the past. People being racist. Someone else's public presentation. Physically uncomfortable, emotionally uncomfortable, uncomfortable for other people/because of other people. But I think there's a kind of discomfort we don't embrace very often. A necessary one. As artists and people we tend to plateau out sometimes...

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Day 12: Shame

Day 12/28: shame definition: the painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, improper, ridiculous, etc., done by oneself or another. synonyms: embarrassment, mortification, humiliation, chagrin Brittany’s shameTynan’s sh...

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Day 11: Childhood vs Adulthood

Day 11/28: childhood and adulthood It’s another Two for Tuesday and today’s are childhood and adulthood. There are so many competing thoughts about growing up, from C. S. Lewis’s argument that true adults don’t worry about being childish and actually delight in it to the Times article about the selfie-self-absorbed millennials (can I hear a bullshit?). Is youth better than age? It’s sure a lot easier. I mean, until you hit puberty maybe. Remember,...

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Day 10: Murmur

Day 10/28: murmur secrets pass between two people in murmurs and whispers, of love and betrayal. its always soft, quiet, as if afraid that a proclamation would break the world around it. Brittany's murmur Tynan's murmur...

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Day 9: Demons

Day 9/28: demons They say that demons take many forms. You have the traditional views of ‘demons’ such as Lucifer, bathed in hellfire and cloaked in red. You have the black-eyed snarky smooth-talkers from tv shows like Supernatural. Demons, a darkness, living inside you, giving you something else to blame for the cruelty in your own heart. “It’s the demon in me.” “My inner demons.” Brittany’s demon Tynan’s de...

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Day 8: letters

Day 8/28 A few days ago my mother and I sat in a floor in front of her hope chest (we’re Southern so that’s a thing) looking through letters my father wrote her more than thirty years ago. We cried. Just a few months before I had read through letters addressed to my grandfather. We have a visceral connection to physical indications of memories before us. Paper and history and words and emotions and my darlings and I miss yous and letters are...

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Day 7: not my usual

Day 7/28: not my usual I’m usually very regimented in my schedule. Get up for work at the same time. Get the same cup of coffee every morning. Eat the same thing for breakfast. The waitress at the diner down the street knows me by name and knows what I’m going to order, so we skip the pretense of perusing the menu. But today, today is something different. I skipped the diner coffee today, made some at home. Ate breakfast at home; cereal,...

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Day 6: Fireflies

Day 6/28: fireflies I used to catch fireflies in a jar when I was little, poking holes in the top so that they could breathe, and watch them light up and crawl around. I grew up just outside of DC, and in the summer there were ALWAYS fireflies around (I don’t see them often where I live now). Lightning bugs, my brother and I called them, because for just that one split second, they illuminated the world around them, like a bolt of lightning. I...

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Day 5: hunted

Day 5/28: Hunted hunt;; to chase with the intention of catching or killing one’s prey; to drive or chase down something or someone; to search for something. Predator or Prey? Brittany’s hunt Tynan’s hunt (warnings for fake blood/gore, talks about death/murde...

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Day 4: far & near

Day 4/28: far & near Today is our first Two for Tuesday of the month! If you are new to the challenge, Two for Tuesdays are a day when we give you TWO prompts instead of one. You can do one piece based on both, two pieces (one for each) or one piece for one! We’re super freeform about it! Far and near, close and distant. It can be the distance between two people, an item close up then far away, something just out of reach. The separation...

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Day 3: breathing (breathless)

Day 3/28: breathing (breathless) We do it so effortlessly. Breathing. Your body will actually force you to breathe, just to keep you alive. A subconscious effort, the inflating of the lungs in the chest, breathe in, breathe out, repeat repeat repeat. Being breathless comes with a feeling of lightheaded-ness, your heartbeat thundering in your ears, racing to pump oxygen back into your bloodstream. You can feel thin, stretched out, sometimes...

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Day 2: I Know

Day 2/28: i know Knowledge is power. Maybe you know a secret. Maybe you repeatedly tell your mother you know something and she keeps treating you like you don’t. Maybe you’re confessing. But you know something, and you have to tell someone. i know. i know, i know, i know. Post a link to your piece in the comment's section so we can see the results! Brittany's knowledge Tynan's knowle...

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Day 1: Daybreak

Day 1/28: daybreak We felt it was appropriate to start with this, as daybreak is the beginning of the day, and this is the beginning of our challenge. The dawn, the first light of the day, creeping over the edge of the horizon. You can also take on a more symbolic meaning, to new beginnings, a fresh start. Post a link to your piece in the comment's section so we can see the results! Brittany's daybreak Tynan's daybr...

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D-1!

Hello again everyone! Tynan, popping in to let you all know that the prompt list has officially been dropped for this year. You can check out the list here, on our blogspot, or here, on our tumblr. Also, Brittany and I were lucky enough to be interviewed by Annemarie Lockhart from voxpoetica, which you can listen to here. The official challenge starts tomorrow, so we'll be posting our first prompt tomorrow morning. Don't wait for us to post,...

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Introductions: YOU

And now we’d like to hear from all y’all! It’s no requirement but we’ve found it’s only more fun when you know a bit about the people creating near you! Write a brief introduction to yourself in the comments section. We’d like to hear a fun fact or recent projects, what mediums you plan on using, who’s your fave artist, what’s your fave snack food, whatever you like! Share it with us, what you'd like to get out of this project, what inspires...

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Introductions: Brittany

WELL HELLO THERE, Y’ALL. Like Tynan pointed out, you probably got a feel for us through the giveaways, but we figured we’d go ahead with some good, old fashioned intros. Name’s Brittany. I’m still looking for a grant to spend all day making sassy faces at people (for those of you with us last year) but since that hasn’t come through, here I am. Fun (vain?) fact, I recently had a play, paper backs, produced by Sundown Collaborative...

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Introductions: Tynan

Hello everyone! I know we've already had a bit of introduction through the giveaways, but for the sake of the challenge itself, HI I'M TYNAN. That's not my real name, but for all points and purposes, that's what you can call me. I'm really excited about this year's 28 to Create. Last year, for those of you who participated, or have read the old posts on the blogspot account, I was in a really bad spot at the beginning of the year. Like, really...

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D-7!

Hello again everyone, Tynan here. We are officially 1 week away from the start of the new season of 28 to Create, and there's so much going on already! We hosted 2 giveaways on our new tumblr account, our introductions are going up tomorrow, and the prompt list is being finalized. And, in just 7 short days, we have our first challenge! There's still some time for you to submit prompt ideas, and the best way to do that is to email us at 28tocreate@gmail.com,...

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