New Work in Progress" 12 x 12 x 12 June 2026

The theme for my 12 x 12 x 12 June 2026, my monthly 12" square painting, is to help me decide how to transition the background color in my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026 painting to document a big life change that I expect will increase how much I walk every day.

The fabric in the photo is the same grid as my walking painting. While the circles are smaller than the icons I use to document my steps by the thousands, they leave me a good amount of space to try different color options.

Currently, I have been painting Florescent Magenta in the background of some squares to signify the days (mostly weekends, but also including holidays, vacations days, and sick days) I have not been at work, because it usually gives me more time to walk for exercise. 

My days are going to change soon, and I'm trying to decide what color I will use instead of the Florescent Magenta so I can highlight that. Hopefully working on this piece, and experimenting with one of the blueish paint colors in this photo, I will be able to make a good choice.

New Work in Progress: Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026

 

This is the month of May for my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026 painting, a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016. 

In May I walked over 10,000 steps 19 times thanks to warmer weather, and more sunlight after work. On May 20, the high daytime temperature in eastern Massachusetts was 47 degrees and it rained just about all day. I didn't have wearing long johns on my bingo card for May!

I use a system of symbols to represent each thousand steps. Instead of showing exactly how many I walk. The black icons represent up to 9999 steps walked each day, red represents 10,000-19,999 steps and yellow represents 20,000-29,999 steps.

The base monoprinted grid is black, with Florescent Magenta background paint used to signify the days (mostly weekends, but also including holidays, vacations days, and sick days) I was not at work, which usually gives me more time to walk for exercise than the days I am at work.

Under some individual days, there is a painted line of color to represent reasons that may lower or raise the number of steps I walked that day, such as snow, rainy, extreme hot or cold, illness, and vacation.

The painting is created with monoprinted textures of a construction fence as the background, handstamped rubber erasers on fabric which are collaged on the background grid, as well as handpainting and stitching on stiffened fabric.

The second image shows January through May and plenty of room for the rest of the year.

New Work: 12 x 12 x 12 May 2026

May 12 x 12 x 12 is a mixed media painting that pays homage to the Bartlett Pear Tree that grew in our back yard for over 20+ years, that we had to take down due to a number of reasons. The four brown squares are an acrylic skin of the photo of the stump after the tree came down. There is a circle pattern in the stump that can be seen in the lower left corner of the upper right brown square. The small circles in the squares are collaged on the stiffened fabric to represent tree trunks in general.  

New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12

I'm working on my May 12 x 12 x 12 mixed media painting. This month I decided to pay homage to the Bartlett Pear Tree that was growing in our back yard for the past 20+ years, that we had to take down due to a number or reasons. I printed a photo of the stump and made an acrylic skin to apply on the base fabric. Here are some process pictures, including removing the paper from the photo that makes it translucent.

New Work in Progress: Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026

This is the month of April for my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026 painting, a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016. 

In April, I walked over 10,000 steps 12 times thanks to warmer weather, and more sunlight after work.

I use a system of symbols to represent each thousand steps. Instead of showing exactly how many I walk. The black icons represent up to 9999 steps walked each day, red represents 10,000-19,999 steps and yellow represents 20,000-29,999 steps.

The base monoprinted grid is black, with Florescent Magenta background paint used to signify the days (mostly weekends, but also including holidays, vacations days, and sick days) I was not at work, which usually gives me more time to walk for exercise than the days I am at work.

Under some individual days, there is a painted line of color to represent reasons that may lower or raise the number of steps I walked that day, such as snow, rainy, extreme hot or cold, illness, and vacation.

The painting is created with monoprinted textures of a construction fence as the background, handstamped rubber erasers on fabric which are collaged on the background grid, as well as handpainting and stitching on stiffened fabric.

The second image shows January through April and plenty of room for the rest of the year.

New Work: 12 x 12 x 12 April 2026

 

My 12 x 12 x 12 April 2026 painting incorporates hand stamped circles, dots, and stitched lines that create pattern. The monthly 12 x 12 x 12  series is my time to play and experiment with different ideas and techniques with the end result of a 12" x 12" mixed media painting on stiffened fabric.

Handstamping on Fabric

 

I handstamped 60 circle stamps for my April 12 x 12 x 12 painting and 14 red and another 14 black, for my 2026 Walking painting on fabric. The red stamps represent my walking over 10,000 steps and black represents under.