I’ve completed a few hundred things challenges over the last few years. I’ve always done them in my own way. I know that I can’t and won’t complete a daily challenge or mostly ever be able to complete a monthly challenge. But when I do a challenge in my own way, I can get it done.

Yesterday I hit 102 in my own personal challenge- 300 Vehicles. 

I don’t think I wrote about it here, except in a post that I hid away in my drafts. I got some news that has forced me to speed up some of my “focus on art due to values journaling” plans. A direct result of this was to put in an application for a pop up gallery show at a local art gallery and art association. It’s a long story and I fear not one I can share here.

Anyway, when I was putting in the proposal for the show I had to decide on a number of images like those I was already making, that would look cool on the gallery wall and be impressive (to me.)

For whatever reason I settled on 300.

Why 300?
100 is a challenge that most of us can do.
200 is only double that and would look okay on the wall.

300 though, that’s kinda crazy. It’s not a bananas number like 1000. It’s enough that the small gallery will look filled and the walls will be packed.

It’s a stretch for me. I KNOW I can do 100. Can I do 300?

I hit 102 yesterday. 

To complete 300 I need to make 1.75 images a day.

I’m usually making 2 or 3 with some weekend days 5.

One weekend day I did 10!

The process for the images is simple- I tape postcards up to some sturdy chipboard, a little heavier than soda box carton. Each postcard is taped with a little bit of a thicker margin at the bottom, probably 3/8th of an inch. With the other 3 edges getting 3/16th of an inch. I then sketch on site, en plein air, each car. 

The media used for the sketch is a little different. I use colored pencils, mechanical colored pencils, and inktense colored pencils. The Koh-i-noor giconda magic colored pencil has been a real favorite. But inktense have been adding a lot of really nice base color to the images.

This is key to the process, the sketches are done QUICKLY. I try to spend no more than 5 to 10 minutes on each sketch. I am looking for vibes not realism. I’m looking at light and shadow.

When it comes down to it, I can less about the vehicle itself and more about the shape, shadow and light.

After I complete the sketch it gets shoved into my bag and I start another, if I have time.

Then I add color in studio. I’ve been playing around with a lot of different paints. Beam paints* have been giving me some really nice granulating effect that I REALLY adore. I also have been leaning back on my favorites Holbein paints.

After painting I let the images dry and then I layer on some more colored pencils, some Neocolor 1 or 2s, then some china marker, or Stabilo Woody. I’ve added in some ink too.

Over all I’m really liking how free I feel as I make these images. I also really like that they go from a sketch that feels rooted in realism to something even more loose and free.

Anyway, here is number 100:

*Beam paints are really quite amazing but a little pricey. That said I really like their plastic free aesthetic and devotion to less toxic practices. It also makes me REALLY want to attempt to make some of my own paints and inks.

One of the main goals I mined from my values journaling session was that I really want to focus on making my own art for 2025.

Somewhere in my research for values journaling someone suggested (I really should do better at keeping notes) that you ask yourself the question, “When was I the most happy?” When I applied that to thinking about art and making art, I immediately thought to AJ Ning and the summer I paid my bills with art.

I believe I told the story here before, but back in the summer of 2002 I had moved home, had a disastrous break up, well 2*, and decided to focus on me. I had a summer where I didn’t have a full time job and I would wake up in the morning, drive to a scenic spot, hike, draw and paint. My pieces ranged from little 5×7 inch drawings and watercolors to large 22×30 inch watercolors and gouache pieces. There were a few small desk top sized driftwood sculptures too. 

All this went up on eBay and sold from anywhere from 10 cents to $125. $125 was decent money in 2002. It was close to half my rent for the month. 

Anyway, back then I looked at the landscapes and drawings of lighthouses as selling out a bit, no matter how much I enjoyed making them. Landscapes sold to tourists felt like selling out.

Today I see landscapes as an exploration of my space in the world. I always enjoyed painting and drawing them, but now I’ve embraced landscapes and portraits and everything else as something that I can just enjoy making. I’ve released the idea of “selling out” as a judgement I made on myself and made by others onto myself. It was a juvenile judgement.

From this goal, to focus on making my own art, I’ve decided that I want to apply for grants and artist residencies. In my research I realize that I’m late to the party when it comes to residencies and grants for this summer. I’ve missed most deadlines for residencies that occur during the time I can take vacation this summer, and likely will have to schedule into the following summer. Though summer 2026 will be more flexible if I can find things out in advance. My summer schedule at the DayJob is flexible.

It’s an interesting thing, applying for grants and residencies as I approach 50. When I graduated from my undergrad program I was told I should apply for residencies, but I saw application fees and also the various fees associated with the residencies. The information I had access to didn’t show any residencies that paid the artists, and many do. Many just cover housing. If I had done more research I’d have found what I’ve found now. And that are a lot of grants and residencies that cover expenses of the residencies. There are some that make sure the artist can even eat!

Anyway, if I can’t find a residency for this summer, I’m going to see if I can get a grant and craft my own. Maybe it’ll be a residency on my bike- I’ll ride my bike places and paint and draw there. Maybe camp. We’ll see what happens. All I know is that like last summer I want to immerse myself in making art then set about having a show.

*It turned out that my now wife and I just needed a break from one another to grow the f*ck up and be a good couple.

My grandfather told me he’d always wanted to be an artist, specifically an oil painter, but as a poor kid from a poor family he joined the Coast Guard. Mostly because it was the only branch of the military where he could guarantee that he would never get on a plane. This was back in the late 40’s so I guess that makes sense. 

He served until he was injured falling from a ladder. I’m not sure exactly what happened with the injury but I do know it hurt his back and his hip. He had a lump that he was told was scar tissue. In the early 90s the lump grew and started to be painful. The doctor’s did a biopsy and found that it was still benign and just scar tissue but in the exams they found that he had lung cancer.

He died at 67, never having picked up a brush.

This has always been a driving force behind my art making and encouraging others to make art. Part of me wonders what kind of art my grandfather would have made, had he ever gotten the encouragement to pick up a brush. Especially if his family had the means to encourage him to pick up a brush.

I imagine him making paintings of forests and fields, things that celebrate the home and life he had made. Maybe he would have painted cars and trucks- the things he repaired as part of his job as one of the head members of the maintenance team at the local University.

I wonder. 

One of the big things I wonder about is what would happen if we were all given support around the things we love and care about? I’m thinking about Karen Faulkner.*

If you don’t know the story, Karen Faulkner is a Harvard grad venture capitalist who started to ride a bike for enjoyment and exercise in 2017. She made the US Olympic team as a replacement. She quit her venture capital job in 2021 to ride full time. She won gold in the women’s olympic cycling event at 31.

There’s a lot to unpack here. She went to Harvard, most of the reports I read failed to mention that she rowed for Harvard and holds rowing records. So she was already fit. She was a venture capitalist** so she made a fair amount of money.

What does this have to do with art?

Nothing really, but it goes to show that if you have support and systems and money you can quit your job and follow your dreams.

Many of the kids I work with are born into poverty and part of where I work, works to break the cycle of poverty through gaining scholarships and other financial help to send them to college.

I’ve been wondering how I can better support the people in my life and the people reading this with their art. How do we break generational poverty thinking and encourage more art making for art’s sake.

Throughout my life I’ve seen art and art making as an essential form of communication that reaches across boundaries and increases connection between people with differences. Art communicates. Art connects. Art heals.

Imagine if we all had just a little bit of the money a venture capitalist has and the art that would be made.

*forgive me for delving a little into my other love- cycling. I don’t follow races or even road cycling, but this story captured my interest.

**I have some serious ICK issues with venture capital. Look what they have done to NING and other companies.

links:

Olympic reporting

NBC Reporting