Why 1000 paintings?

Painting 1000 paintings before my 40th birthday is going to change my life and here’s why. 

I come from a classic Italian family who believes an intense work ethic and a respectable career define you. My mom was a nurse, my dad was an engineer, and my grandparents owned a grocery business they were deeply devoted to.

No one in my family was an artist. 

I didn’t know I was interested in art until my freshman year of high school when I saw my best friend shading boxes in colored pencil for her art homework. I remember being overwhelmed with the desire to do that too. I didn’t know why or what it meant, I just knew I had to do it. So for the next three years, I took art as my elective and learned how to draw. 

Drawing came naturally to me. 

I was captivated by the meditation, the translation of an object to a flat surface, the creation of a composition, and the reward of standing back and thinking, “Wow, this is sort of beautiful, but has the potential to be better.” I was addicted. 

I wanted to take art to the next level and become a painter, but it wasn’t a “practical” career path.

I was encouraged to pursue a more stable career that, in theory, would scratch my artistic itch. I majored in architecture, then transitioned into a career in design in technology. I never painted.

Years went by and I was never able to shake my desire to paint. 

Over time, this feeling became uncomfortable. I felt like I would run out of time if I didn’t do something about it. A few times, it even led me to try painting, but I was left feeling frustrated because I didn’t know what I was doing.

In 2016, I managed to find six weeks off of work. I took classes with a fine art teacher who taught the very basics of oil painting—

from how to hold your brush all the way to color theory, paint mixing, and value, tone, and texture with paint. She made painting feel approachable and achievable, as challenging as it was. 

After a few somewhat successful paintings, I felt confident enough to go out on my own. I found other classes and mentors and I created a studio space in my home so that painting was more accessible. Being a painter started to feel part of my life, finally.

In 2018, things dramatically changed when I became a mother. Painting went to the bottom of the list and I didn’t touch my brush for an entire year. But once I exited the fog of early motherhood, those feelings of running out of time came rushing back, stronger than ever. At that point, I had only ever painted 35 paintings and at that rate, it was going to take a lifetime to learn. I knew I needed something big—REALLY BIG—to give me no choice but to paint, and to paint all the time.

Then I had the idea: what if I challenged myself to paint 1000 paintings before my 40th birthday?

The thought of it made me excited, scared, motivated, overwhelmed—but, most importantly, it made me get off my butt and paint. I immediately knew this was going to get me where I wanted to go, and so far, it’s working: I painted 67 paintings in the first six months of the project and 123 in the first year. I have no idea how I’ll get to 1000, but I know that the process of getting there is going to do amazing things in my life.