For the past three years, we’ve asked listeners to share their creative New Year’s resolutions — artistic projects they need a little encouragement to jumpstart. This year, we heard from Garman Herigstad, who has created special effects for movies and TV shows, including Harry Potter and X-Men, for over 25 years. Lately, though, he’s felt less fulfilled by effects work. “As movies got bigger and bigger and bigger, it felt like they were getting less and less creative and more just knocking out burning buildings and smashing cars,” Herigstad tells Kurt Andersen.

At the same time, he's growing increasingly fond of hand-made lettering, a skill he first cultivated as a university student. “Whenever I see some really beautiful calligraphy or hand-drawn lettering, my heart just kind of melts,” he says. So, for 2015, Herigstad decided to get back into his own calligraphy work. His resolution: to hand-letter the entire Book of Proverbs. Why Proverbs? “It’s about 700 little snippets of wisdom,” he says. “It would force me to do a huge body of work, which would help me build up my skills. At the same time, there’s a lot of variety in each one.”

Right now, Herigstad is really feeling Proverbs 27:1, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” “I’m setting a goal, but I want to keep my expectations out there,” he says.