This was not the epic, team-bonding, tear-your-hair out rollercoaster of the traditional, annual, week-long GISH hunt. But it was a welcome, silly, doable distraction, and for once, I feel like my entries were reflective of the best of my abilities.
Having the hunt be one day — somewhat oddly, somewhat understandably — took some of the pressure off. My standards, given the very, very tight time constraints, were lowered to something actually approaching doable, and I was able to be gentler with myself about what was actually possible to get done in a 24-hour span. As a result, I actually completed more entries during the one-day than I did during the whole week of the annual hunt last year.
Of course, the tasks were easier, given the time constraints and the fact that literally no one can leave the house, but it was still a fun, creative activity, and it allowed my son and husband to get in on the action without too much stress as well.
Misha emailed earlier today and confirmed that he’d like to run another mini-hunt in the coming weeks. Registration for this one was $15 and proceeds went to COVID-19 relief and No Child Hungry, so it benefits worthy causes. If anyone reading is interested in possibly participating, check out the official website here. While I am definitely interested in participating, I also hesitate to spend the money on another mini-hunt when the week-long August hunt looms closer and closer.
We organize our team via Facebook group, and since submissions are entered by the person who completes them onto the GISH site itself, we don’t all always get to see every entry, unless they are also uploaded to the Facebook group. During week-long hunts, when people are aiming for something of a higher caliber (since it’s for points), often people will post variations on a challenge and ask for input or suggestions. This year, with only 24 hours, less of that happened. Here is a small smattering of what was shared to the FB group:
Post-GISH, I’ve been mostly sketching; I got my new sketchbook and my new microns, but have yet to crack open either. The sketchbook makes sense, since my goal is to fill the previous one before moving on to the next, but the microns is just that old, completely counterproductive instinct to horde art materials. Like, I don’t want to “waste” this ink on anything less than something stellar (which I probably don’t need to mention, is ridiculous). Old habits die hard. I still have some details work to add to my last three sketches, but after that I will likely share them here and then upload them to my gallery.
Hope you are all keeping busy and staying safe.
