Adventures of the Half Way Day
Ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper
This project isn’t just about eyes; it’s about connection, not just connection with other people, but with self, the past, the present, and the interconnection between everything.
Today, December 19th, at noon, was CognEYEzant:365’s mathematical halfway point. And here, the days of exploration are beginning to turn into discovery, and discovery is beginning to turn into something solid, into 182 pieces of art.
After all this time, this dedication, all the questions I’ve asked myself, and all the moments I’ve observed, I could never have imagined CognEYEzant:365 becoming as tangible as it is.
Ever since I was little, I’ve always had an overabundance of ideas. While these ideas can be exciting, living into them is actually pretty scary. Ideas have a bad habit: they keep coming and coming and coming. Ideas aren’t tangible. To be realized, they rely on you and your skills, on your abilities and perspective.
After 182 days of slowly forcing myself to make and share, sometimes translating ideas, sometimes chasing after them, I’ve finally understood how much courage it takes to bring things into the world. By things, I mean art, thoughts, elements of ourselves, our stories, and on and on. It takes courage because very rarely do our abilities and the world around us reflect what we imagine to be possible.
Yet with each passing day, I am convinced that each small idea–combined with a small act, combined with all the other small acts and ideas–has a lot of power. Similarly, dedication is much more than just a single act: dedication takes, well, dedication. From my experience so far with CognEYEzant:365, I’ve learned that to stay true to something large, you have to make little changes to stay on course.
Over the past twenty-something weeks, I’ve learned that this project isn’t just about eyes; it’s about connection, and not just connection with other people, but with self, the past, the present, and the interconnection between everything.
Today, I hoped to find a quote that could correlate my midway ramblings to something larger. But as I searched—my brain, my bookshelves—I realized that there is a lot of focus placed at the beginning and end of things, the middle often drifts by unseen.
Today, I hoped to find a quote that could correlate my midway ramblings to something larger. But as I searched —my brain, my bookshelves— I realized that there is a lot of focus placed at the beginning and end of things, the middle often drifts by unseen.
Today, I’ve been able to recognize the middle, I’ve been able to reflect, to create, to ramble, to realize that halfway through CognEYEzant:365, it feels as if I’ve just begun.
Now it’s your turn: take a few moments, the ones that belong to this middle place, and reflect on your wildest ideas, reflect on the dedications and changes in your life. Then, take your reflections and ask someone about their own. You just might find that the world is so much more than it appears.
182 days done, 183 to go.
NadiaCDM 