Many years ago, while attending art college, I remember being told of the importance of creating a body of work in order to improve my skills and also to recognize accomplishments but it wasn’t until years later, in 2013, that I began my first 52 WEEKS project. I prepared canvases and hung them on the wall so that each week as I added a new painting on top of the base, I would be reminded of what I had completed. It also inspired me to keep going. My focus with these projects was to experiment with mixed media and with painting subject matter that I wasn’t very comfortable with in order to stretch my creative muscles. Every week I painted a small painting as I hadn’t drawn or painted in this manner since college. In order to create a sense of accountability which I knew I would need to keep me working, I posted my completed painting online each Monday. In the past my work had consisted of large paintings, but I found that taking a little step to work on a small canvas each week to create something bigger ended up being extremely gratifying. I learned so much about myself and developed a stronger personal creative style because of the work that I was completing weekly. During the project there were times that I felt I should quit believing my skillset wasn’t good enough, but because of the encouragement I received both online and in person I kept going.
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