New Work in Progress: Dates in a Life Walking Project 202

This is the month of July 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.

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

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.

In July I walked over 10,000 steps 11 times and came close to that as represented by the circles (9000 steps +) two times, because of hot weather. 

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.

In July, the red lines are for hot days, and the orange is for when I was on vacation, which this time reduced my walking.

The base monoprinted grid is black. Before I retired from my day job, the Florescent Magenta background paint signified the days (mostly weekends, but also including holidays, vacations days, and sick days) when I was not at work, which usually gave me more time to walk for exercise than the days I am at work.

On June 19, I changed the background color to Light Phthalo Blue to signify the days I technically on “vacation” and still on the payroll at work, but actually retired from my day job and my email access ended. On July 1, the background color changed to Light Ultramarine Blue when I was fully retired. It will remain that color through the end of the year.

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

On Exhibit at Gallery 01760

 

I am exhibiting eight small paintings at the Micro Gallery 01760 in Natick, MA. The gallery is outdoors on the wall on Adams St, in Natick Center, close to a lot of public art. The interior dimensions are 12” high, 29” long and 13” deep, which is perfect to exhibit eight of my nine Sewer Covers and the Sealed Crack Lines Around Them. 

The paintings incorporate photos of sewer covers in my neighborhood and the sealed crack lines around them. The sealing of cracks is meant to help prevent further damage on the street.

Some neighbors described the process of crack sealing as loud and as less than desirable to look at. I see it as mark making and find them inspiring.

The paintings include acrylic skins of the photographs collaged on monoprinted, painted and stitched construction fence fabric, painting, stamped dots, and more stitching on 6” x 6" board, created in 2021.

Planning Ahead

 

I'm planning ahead by making sure I have plenty of printed stamped icons for the number of steps I walk each day. In this picture on the middle right you can see black icons for 4000, 5000, 8000, and 9000 drying. On the bottom, to the left of the scissors are the steps I have already walked this week, in red, for 10,000, 11,000, and 10,000 steps for this past Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. On the bottom left is the key to what the stamps mean, black for under 9999 steps, red for 10,000-10,999, and yellow for 20,000 or more. On the right side, the stamps are lined up in a row, lower numbers at the bottom and counting up by the thousands to the top. At the top of the photo are stacks for stamps ready to be used as needed, and above them, black, red and yellow bottles of fabric paint.

New Work: 12 x 12 x 12 July 2026

12 x 12 x 12 July 2026, is influenced by my experience at Noah Kahan's first of four concerts at Fenway Park in Boston. It rained all day that day including through the entire concert. I think we got over 2" in total. We were two of 38,000 people all dressed in various types of rain gear, watching the concert and having a wonderful time!

Besides watching Noah and this band, and the videos in the background, play on stage, I was also watching the rain in the spotlights, hoping to see if it stopped, so I didn't have to put my hand outside of my rain poncho to feel if it was still raining or not.

This mixed media painting includes two monoprinted pieces of construction fences as the metaphor for the spotlights. The dots symbolize the wristbands that lit up on everyone's wrists (assuming their wrists weren't hidden under their gear like mine was so I could keep dry). I stitched the "rain" with my sewing machine, and coated the fabric with watered down matt medium to stiffen it so it doesn't sag.

More New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12 July 2026

 

While watching Noah Kahan at his concert at Fenway Park in Boston in the pouring rain on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, I was also watching the rain in the spotlights in hope it would stop raining. This is work in progress for my July 12 x 12 x 12 mixed media painting which is inspired by my experience. Using monoprinted sections of two different construction fences as the metaphor for the spotlights, I added the dots which symbolize the wristbands that lit up on everyone's wrists (assuming their wrists weren't hidden under their gear like mine was so I could keep dry). Next I will stitch the "rain" in with my sewing machine, and then I'll stiffen the fabric and finish this painting.

New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12 July 2026

 

We had a wonderful time at Noah Kahan’s concert at Fenway Park in Boston despite the pouring rain Tuesday evening! Besides watching him play, I was also watching the rain in the spotlights in hope it would stop raining. The top photo is work in progress of my July 12 x 12 x 12 mixed media painting which is inspired by my experience watching the rain and also from the photo that my husband took of the rain in the spotlight. I'm using monoprinted sections of two different construction fences as the metaphor for the spotlights. I will stitch the "rain" in with my sewing machine after doing some additional surface design on the fabric.

Canvas Bag

Almost everyday for well over five years, I brought this red canvas bag with me to my day job at a nearby city because it was the perfect size to carry my lunch bag and any other stuff I was bringing in that day. It used to have the logo of an organization that worked with cities and towns in Massachusetts. They gave it out one year at the annual conference they have in January. I attended their conference every year for 12 years, including when I had my previous job I had a a nearby school district. I don't remember which year I got it, but I really like it because it's similar to an LL Bean bag but the handles are long enough to carry it on my shoulder. Since the day I got it, I wanted to paint over the logo (no offense to the agency), but I never had the time. I do now, and I did. I traced a construction fence pattern and had fun painting with no plan except to cover the logo and have fun.