A 5"x5" painting every day for one month

Day 1: Midnight Yoga. based on a photo from December 18, 2022.

Day 2: Youghiogheny Sunshine. Based on a photo from June 19, 2022. I was unaware my cellphone was in the river the whole time I was swimming. It still works.

Day 3: Lymes or 36 Bottles of Ensure or True Friendship. Based on a photo from July 28, 2022 (when I had Lyme disease and Alanna sent me 36 bottles of Ensure by accident and I didn’t realize until the next day when I was feeling better and thought huh this seems like a lot of Ensure, but anyway she basically saved my life so I dedicate this one to her)

Day 4: Lup & Rogue (Halupki & Pierogi) based on a photo from September 27, 2021.

Day 5: Fern Hollow. I went across the new bridge for the first time today and thought it would be fitting to revisit photos I took on January 31, 2022 after the Fern Hollow bridge collapse. I’m still thinking about the space underneath bridges and the anticipation of falling.

Day 6: Based on a photo I took of my grandma on the phone with my mom and I on July 5, 2020 and our reflection in the window of the nursing home. I had a dream last night that she was alive and couldn’t understand why I had the memory of her dying because I thought the dream was real.

Day 7: Derby. Pretty much what you see when you’re picking yourself up after getting knocked on your butt. Referenced from a photo by Raymond Durkin at the Steel City Roller Derby June 12, 2022 Pride Bout.

Day 8: Hoggie. Based on a photo from June 26, 2020. There are always groundhogs in my parent’s backyard in Pennsylvania.

Day 9: Lake Michigan. July 26, 2020. This was the first time gathering with friends since the beginning of quarantine.

Day 10: Winter Fire. Based partly on a photo from January 21, 2022 and partly on memory

Day 11: Dog Person. Detail of a painting based on a photo from December 18, 2022

Day 12: A blurry baby fox seen through unfocused binoculars is a lot more difficult to paint than I thought it would be. Based on a photo from April 30, 2022.

Day 13: Ceviche Glow. Based on a photo from May 14, 2019. My roommate’s mom serving us fresh homemade ceviche.

Day 14: Promontory Point. Based on a photo from July 26, 2020.

Day 15: Nieces swinging from the tree my sister planted in my grandmother's yard. August 8, 2020

Day 16: Based on a photo of my hand holding a circle of wire I brazed after a lesson on July 8, 2022. I got Covid later that day but was convinced the symptoms were metal fume fever.

Day 17: A wild vine along the Youghiogheny river. Based on a photo from April 24, 2022.

Day 18: Edgar Thomson seen from Thomas Town at night. Based on photos from December 26, 2019 when I rode the train at Kennywood that replaced the old ride that used to give a brief history of the area and included the myth of Joe Magarac and pointed out the Edgar Thomson works across the Mon, which, if I remember correctly, is one of the last steel mills still in operation in the US. It’s now just a train that offers no educational insight but plays a very irritating Thomas the Train song the whole time.

Day 19: Sandhill Cranes. On Oct 20, 2019 some friends drove out to Michigan to witness the sandhill crane migration and invited me along, it’s one of my favorite days to remember.

Day 20: Aquarius Season. February 12, 2021 when I drove to Chicago and brought Iron City and we were still so cautious we wore masks and drank with straws.

Day 21: Guncles and nieces. Based on a photo from September 5, 2020.

Day 22: Hazard and dad. August 15, 2020. We found Haz as a kitten under the scissorlift I was using to paint a mural in Perryopolis in 2010.

Day 23: Coke Oven, April 24, 2022. Coal was mined in the southwestern region of PA and then transformed into coke in beehive ovens like this one that still mar the landscape in Connellsville along the Youghiogheny River. The coke made here once fueled the blast furnaces of Pittsburgh and the surrounding area where steel was produced.

Day 24: Lola & Noah. December 2, 2022.

Day 25: Japanese Maple. Removing the English ivy from my favorite tree, July 3, 2020.

Day 26: Mad Chicken. From a photo taken at the Steel City Roller Derby bout on October 22, 2022

Day 27: Old Mill or Garfield’s Nightmare? I accidentally gave myself six fingers and I’m keeping it that way. From a photo taken on June 24, 2022.

Day 28: Azalea. Based on a photo from 1972 of the azalea bush my grandfather planted with a shadow of him or my grandmother taking the photo outside their house that I now live in.

Day 29: Keystone sisters Maryland crabs. Based on a photo from June 30, 2022.

Day 31: Penn Hills. My dad telling me about how he and his friends used to run down this very steep hill in the neighborhood he grew up in. March 2, 2021.