The sun shining in the window of my tiny art studio on my Dates in a Life 2024 painting on the left. On the right is my 2025 painting in progress. Both document the number of steps I walk each day (by the thousands) using hand stamped icons. My messy painting and sewing table is in the foreground.
Here is the month of April in my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2025 painting, a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016.
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.
I was able to walk 10,000 steps or more on six days in April. The weather was good for walking but I wasn't able to take advantage of it as much as I would have liked.
The Iridescent Bright Gold 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, with the exception of sick days (of course).
The picture below shows January through April with plenty of room for the rest of the year.
Here is the month of March in my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2025 painting, a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016.
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.
I was able to walk 10,000 steps on four days and the day with the black round icon, I walked 9310 steps, but unfortunately didn't have time to walk 10,000.
The Iridescent Bright Gold 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, with the exception of sick days (of course).
The picture below shows January through March with plenty of room for the rest of the year.
This is the month of February in my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2025 painting, a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016.
The Iridescent Bright Gold 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, with the exception of sick days (of course).
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.
There are 12 days in the second and third week where I outlined the icons that day in Teal, to represent why I didn't walk more than usual. On Super Bowl Sunday I fell very hard on black ice. While I didn't break anything, I had (and still have) soft tissue bruising and was either in too much pain to walk or was very afraid to walk outside due to ice.
The four days where the icons are four vertical lines (IIII), I only walked 1000 steps. I have never in nine years walked that little, even after donating my kidney, when I had to walk a mile in the hospital, which is 2300+ steps.
The picture below shows January and February with plenty of room for the rest of the year.
This is the month of January in my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2025 painting. It's the first month in a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016.
I prefer to walk for exercise, as time permits, outside in addition to whatever other walking I do as I go about my day. My goal is to walk as much as I can every day. I use the Pedometer app on my iPhone to document my steps.
The base monoprinted grid is Caribbean Breeze, with Iridescent Bright Gold 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, with the exception of sick days (of course).
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.
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 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 Dates in a Life Walking Project 2024 is a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016.
I prefer to walk for exercise, as time permits, outside in addition to whatever other walking I do as I go about my day. My goal is to walk as much as I can every day. I use the Pedometer app on my iPhone to document my steps.
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 violet. The Silver background paint shows the days I didn’t have, or make, time to walk for exercise, which lowered the number of steps I walked each day through June. In July, I switched to using Bronze because my work schedule and lunch break changed, which also affected my opportunity to walk at lunch time.
Underneath 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.
For April 8th (the second row on the left and to the right of the yellow icon for walking over 23,000 steps the day before), I documented when I saw the total solar eclipse in Watertown, NY by visually representing the 3 minutes and 22 seconds of totality.
I also walked 20,285 steps when visiting Seattle on November 25th and I walked 23,442 steps on December 31st, which also have yellow icons on those days.
The green dots in the middle of the icons indicate time healing from a foot injury which happened in May 2023.
I had Covid for the first time in June, and documented that by painting an overlay of positive Covid tests over the icons when I was sick or contagious. I did walk around my neighborhood those days but stayed away from other people.
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.
Happy New Year! December 2024 was not a good month for walking as evidenced by the icons with gold in the background, which were under 5000 steps, but I more than made up for it on New Years Even when I walked 23,442 steps which is represented by the yellow icon.
I have many hours to finish painting the lines dividing the months on my 2024 walking painting, which is quite large, and then I'll start working on 2025's. I am usually finished by the end of the year but not this time.
The sun was shining on the December section of my walking painting this morning, the very last day of 2024. There is only one icon left to add for how many steps I walk today, which is circled in red at the bottom. We’re hosting a free New Year’s Eve party for 2000-3000 people on the Rail Trail in Natick and I expect to walk well over 10,000 steps, hopefully close to 20,000 if I’m lucky. Happy New Year to all!
November was a busy month and the weather was cooler as expected. My goal is to walk close to or more than 10,000 steps a day. I was able to walk almost 10,000 steps on two days (see the circles), 10,000 or more steps on five days (see the red icons), and I walked a little over 20,000 steps one day while in Seattle (see the yellow icon). I do wish I had been able to walk more than the 4000 steps or less on the six days highlighted in gold.
The picture above is of November, and the picture below is January through November, with room for December in the bottom right corner.
I cannot believe this year is coming to an end! It's time to start planning and working on the background fabric for my 2025 walking painting, which will be my 10th year documenting my steps.
Happy November! October was another wonderful weather month! I was able to walk 10,000 or more steps on seven days (see the red icons) though I wish I had been able to walk that much on more days. The gold highlight color shows the seven days I walked 4000 steps or less, which is always a disappointment. My goal is to walk close to or more than 10,000 day.
The picture above is of October, and the picture below is January through October, with room for November and December to the right. I cannot believe this year is coming to an end in 60 days!
I love September in New England! The weather is wonderful, especially for walking! I was able to walk 10,000 or more steps on eight days (see the red icons) though I wish I had been able to walk that much on more days. The gold highlight color shows the seven days I walked 4000 steps or less, which is a disappointment. My goal is to walk close to or more than 10,000 day.
The picture above is of September, and the picture below is January through September, with room at the bottom for the rest of the year.
August started out hot, but by mid-month it was just glorious, with warm temps during the day and cool at night. Despite the better weather, I still didn't walk the high number of steps I prefer to walk each day. I only walked 10,000 or more steps on only two days (see the red icons).
The gold highlight color is on days I walked 4000 steps or less. My goal is to walk close to or more than 10,000 day.
The picture above is of August, and the picture below is January through August.
July was a hot month, and because I don’t feel good in the heat, it limited the number of steps I walked each day.
In July, I walked 10,000 or more steps on only two days (see the red icons), when we had more pleasant weather.
The gold highlight color is on days I walked 4000 steps or less. My goal is to walk close to or more than 10,000 day. This morning I was feeling down that I didn’t walk that much last month. But when I compare it to July 2023, when I was recovering from a foot injury (which better now but not 100%), I am trying not to be so hard on myself.
I'm five months in documenting the number of steps I walk each day in 2024. The weather in May was mostly comfortable spring but we did have a week or more of hot summer-like temperatures, which I do not enjoy. I was only able to walk 10,000 or more steps on six days (see the red icons), but I did walk over 9000 steps on three days (see the black circle icons). My day job work schedule is changing on Monday, which will effect my walking mostly in the winter, but I am considering changing the silver color on the days I walk very little to a different color that will change the overall painting. I'll report back on July 1 or so.
