What is this Project About?

Blu wanted to test the theory: “If we do something over and over again, the world shall open up to us.” This passion project, undertaken as a studio practice under “Out of Blu,” delves into the realm of paper art. Paper art serves as a simple, accessible medium to tap into our inner creativity. Blu's aim was clear: craft 100 monster-themed bookmarks to both explore the medium and simply enjoy the process.

Why Monsters?

Crafting monsters as bookmarks invites us to explore the boundaries of art, free from the constraints of right or wrong. Since nobody really knows what monsters look like, we get to use our imaginations and come up with our own ideas.
So it allows us a space to relinquish control. If one were to make a cat bookmark, we know what a cat looks like and we will assemble the paper that way. With monsters, we have no idea what the end would be, and thus we are able to reach a different end every time.
Thus Blu created a 100 unique monsters (and still counting).

Here are 8 lessons learned from crafting 100 bookmarks:

1. Beauty is a practice of paying attention.

To create something means to give it attention. To care for something means to give it attention. Blu realized that attention is a powerful tool that we possess as humans(or creators). The more time that Blu spent with an individual piece, the more detail he added to it, and more intricate it became, and prettier it looked. Every time that Blu was unsure of how to go further with the design of a piece, Blu sat with silently with the piece, and it gave him direction.
Attention is how the plant in our balcony grows, is how our relationship flourishes, is how our body gets in form, is how our life restores its beauty. When we give something attention, we care for it, and thus it grows, it flourishes, it thrives. So it’s important of where we put our attention.

2. We can work with what we have. Right now is enough.

“Enough or Not Enough” is a recurring conversation that arrives at the table for Blu. It takes intention and compassion weaved through stories to not be at the affect of the scarcity culture that is fed through marketing strategies of the consumer economy.
The way that Blu explored this concept through art is to sticking to a color palette. A set of three of four colors would be fixed at the start of every piece and each detail for the particular piece would be added through these dedicated colors. The challenge was to layer details and also make the artwork stay pretty, and the goal was achieved every time.
There is no piece of monster that Blu finished and was dissatisfied with, every piece turned out pretty. So yes, we can work with what we have and right now is enough if we brave enough to hold the tension and sit with the work.

3. Beauty and power are very much within.

Creatorship is the key. It is for each one of us to realize that we are creators and the world is an open for all playground, and all the revolutions start within.
Beauty is on the inside. Creatorship allows us to extend it outward.
Power is within. Creatorship allows us to realize it for ourselves.

4. As a creator, it’s essential to have faith to arrive at something you’d have never imagined

To trust in the process is to open up to the magic that the world has to offer. The way the Blu was able to create a 100 unique monsters was to not decide early on how they would look like at the start, but to trust the process. Blu would start with eyes, after eyes are made, Blu would ask the piece what part to create next and what color and what shape, and then create that part, and then ask again.

5. The secret is patience and faith.

It is. To create something beautiful, it’s important to be patient to be able to sit with the work when you see no obvious direction, and to have faith that it shall be fine to keep wading through all the moments of self-doubt.

6. Quantity over Quality, and you shall never be disappointed

To focus on quality is to allow your head to get in the middle of your creations. To create something has so much to do with trusting your body, trusting your hands. To allow for the head to come in the process is to hinder yourself. Let the critique sit, allow yourself to create freely. Create as much as you like and you shall see that you’d never be left disappointed.
After creating a 100 bookmarks, there is only one bookmark that Blu did not agree with, the rest 99, Blu adores dearly, and there are at least a dozen that are absolute favorites.

7. Sit with the trouble and creativity will find a way.

There is a beautiful relationship that creativity shares with tension. Every tension is like a prison, a box that constricts us and tell us what we can’t do, and human life is so grand, expansive, and resilient that it always figures a way out of the box (through creativity).
Blu introduced tension with the idea of sticking to a color palette, and creativity flowed by creating designs and patterns that allowed beauty to flourish through that tension.
Donna Harraway wrote, “Staying with the Trouble – means not giving up when the subject matter or object (a scorpion, sewers, ‘bad’ behaviour) makes you squeamish or angry. It means trying to stay in a place of ambiguity when cherished notions and beliefs are being attacked or undermined.  It’s at these points – of uncertainty, of fear, when your defences might go up – that, if you are brave and lucky, you might make a ‘breakthrough’.  You might not be a happier or ‘better’ person afterwards, but then again, you might.”

8. If you do something over and over again, the world opens up to you.

Blu highly recommends that you test this for yourself :)