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

 

Here is the month of October on my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026, a year-long painting that documents the number of steps I walk each day. 

The picture above shows how many steps I walked in last month. The red icons show the 18 days I walked over 10,000 steps, and the black icons are for up to 9999 steps (with the 6 circles representing 9000 or more steps). 

The weather last month was beautiful in Massachusetts! I believe we broke the record for the most sunny days in October, which is nice for walking, but that meant we had very little rain which we need very much.

In the picture below, you can see January through October with plenty of room through December. The yellow icons are for walking 20,000 or more steps, which i have done 4 times (so far) this year.

New Work: 12 x 12 x 12 September 2026

New work, 12 x 12 x 12 September 2026. In the middle of this painting are photos of the individual Dahlia's I received in a CSA share each week for five weeks in September and early October,. The rows above and below the flowers are from a photo of red leaves on and under a shrub.

I created acrylic skins of the photos and collaged each photo, or pieces of the photo, inside each "hole" in the grid of the texture of a monoprinted construction fence. This fabric painting is very stiff and heavy with multiple layers of skins, paint, and matt medium.

Palindrome

Last week I walked a palindrome of steps by the thousands, something that has only happened once or twice before in my eleven years of documenting the number of steps I’ve walked everyday.

 

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

Over the past few days I have been struggling to get my 12 x 12 x 12 October 2026 painting the way I thought I wanted it, entirely with collaged acrylic skins of photos of the individual flowers I got in the 5-week Dahlias CSA share I was gifted. It became obvious it was not going to work in a similar way as my 12 x 12 x 12 September painting which had photos of blue water access covers I saw on the street while I was walking in my neighborhood.

Last night I was talking to a dear artist friend, trying to explain my frustration. She suggested turning it upside down but that wasn't going to work because it's symmetrical, but I did turn it 180 degrees and went to bed. I woke up this morning with a solution I think will work, so I am making more skins, this time with two photos of fallen leaves on a shrub to collage on the surface. While this is a totally different idea from what I initially wanted to do, I think it'll work. Fingers crossed.

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

Work in progress on my 12 x 12 x 12 October 2026 painting.

I am collaging acrylic skins of photos of the individual flowers I got in the 5-week Dahlias CSA share I was gifted from a local farm when I retired from my day job a few months ago.

I was planning on filling each square on this fabric with flowers, similar to how I made my 12 x 12 x 12 September painting which had photos of blue water access covers I saw on the street while I was walking in my neighborhood, but now I am rethinking it, which is part of the process. To be continued.

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

I started removing the paper off the back of the acrylic coated paper with photos of the individual flowers I got in the 5-week Dahlias CSA share I was gifted from a local farm when I retired from my day job a few months ago.

These photos show how I removed the paper from skins and how the color appears as the paper is gone. It's a slow and gentle process where I wet the paper and rub it off the back acrylic photo with a sponge, and try to not rip the acrylic skin.

When the paper has been removed from each of the skins, and they are dry, I will cut each flower into the correct size and shape and collage them on a piece of fabric that has the texture of a gridded construction fence for my 12 x 12 x 12 October 2026 painting. 

This painting will be similar to how I made my 12 x 12 x 12 September painting, which had photos of blue water access covers I saw on the street while I was walking in my neighborhood.

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

Today was the last week of the 5-week Dahlias CSA share I was gifted from a local farm when I retired from my day job a few months ago.

Every week I took a picture of each individual flower. Here are screenshots of five of the flowers from today. Some darker flowers, which are rich and beautiful, are printing very dark so I decided not to use them on my 12 x 12 x 12 October 2026 painting.

I coated this printout with matt medium to create more skins that I will cut up and collage, along with the first print of flowers I already shared, on a piece of fabric that has the texture of a gridded construction fence. It will be similar to how I made my 12 x 12 x 12 September painting, which had photos of blue water access covers I saw on the street while I was walking in my neighborhood.