Artist Juan Moore looks back - and forwards - over a year in images captured for Island of Culture.
‘Looking back at the start of the project I think I was incredibly naive about how big it would be. The project has been extremely demanding but also really rewarding. I've had the opportunity to work across many mediums and explore a number of themes, which is always good fun. In terms of thinking of an image to create every day I've only really stumbled a couple of times. At the end of January I had a couple of days where I really found it hard to come up with anything, though I did in the end, and then there was a brief spate around TT week when I wanted to do images that were bike themed without actually doing images of bikes.
‘The long duration of the project, a whole year, has made the process of creating an artwork every day into sort of a habit; it's become something I just do every day now. And it's been nice that I can explore whatever medium I'm in the mood for, be it acrylic paint, print making, digital or drawing. People ask me how far ahead I work. To be honest, not very, usually only a day ahead.
‘Part of the project meant travelling round all the island's high schools and producing an artwork in front of the students.
‘The thing I've enjoyed the most about the project is the amount of exposure it has gotten; it's not just the Manx public that have viewed the daily artwork, but people from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Malta, Bulgaria - all over the world, really. I've even had views from far-flung islands in the South Pacific and Mongolia. The blog averages around 100 to 200 views per day with a current total of around 40k views.
‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Island of Culture team, the Arts Council for funding the project and to everyone who has viewed the blog throughout the year. It's been a full-on year for the island in terms of creativity and I hope 2015 will be equally as amazing.’
You can view Juan's images here http://imageadayiom.blogspot.com
Photo - the final Image a Day – December 31st 2014 – created by Juan Moore.
