Thus begins my art-a-day journey. I’ll be creating something every day related to a noun that I choose at random.

This project is mainly about engaging the right side of my brain in new ways on a regular basis. My goal is to get out of the rut of day-to-day activity and stretch my creative muscles. Ideally, along the way I’ll also discover new things about my creativity and find or develop skills at the same time.

Why nouns? Well, why not? It satisfies the English major in me. Besides, creativity is not often ignited by having a wide open playing field. Inspiration happens when you have boundaries to work against.

The site’s name, “More Than Nouns,” was inspired by the fact that the creative results, although inspired by simple nouns, become something more than single words.

To help me get started, I asked several friends to send me a list of nouns, one for every letter of the alphabet. I printed out their lists, cut them up, and dropped the individual words into a jar.

Here are my rules:

• I must create something every 24 hours, Monday through Friday.
• The creative project must be based upon or inspired by the word I draw from the Jar o’ Words.
• All creative mediums are fair game, but the same medium cannot be used twice in a row.

Special thanks to everyone who sent me nouns. If I get through them all, maybe we’ll move on to another part of speech, like verbs or adjectives.

Now let’s get cracking!