The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
So if I'm doing the same thing 1,650 times and expecting near-similar results, I should be fine, right? Right...
One year ago, Halloween 2023...
On October 31, 2023, I met with the Allied Arts OKC team to discuss a mysterious email Shannon (on the left, above) had sent me:
"I’m Shannon Lockwood, and I run the Employee Giving program at Allied Arts. We met at the Paseo Arts Festival, and a bought one of your awesome prints! I am a huge fan, and I showed your work to my boss, Sunny Cearley, and she is also a fan. We do a big project every year that involves commissioning a local artist, and Sunny and I would love to meet with you to chat about it. Are you free sometime soon? Thank you!"
In that meeting, they told me all about Allied Arts and the Employee Giving Campaign... and the Step Up gifts created by local artists that are given to anyone who donates over $200 through that campaign.
At the end of about an hour of talking about the amazing artists who have worked with Allied Arts since 2016 and discussing how important the arts are to EVERYONE, they asked me, "How would you like to be our 2025 Step Up Artist?"
Of course I said YES!
What does this mean?
It means that I am creating the artwork that will be given to anyone who gives over $200 as part of Allied Arts' 2025 Employee Giving Campaign.
My contact is for at least 850 pieces, and at most 1,650 (at this time).
Since this is the 10th Anniversary of the Employee Giving Campaign, I decided to be #extra and make all original artworks. All the same subject and color scheme, but all originals.
Previous Allied Arts Step Up Artists:
Benjamin Harjo, Jr. (2024),
Lauren Florence (2023),
Denise Duong (2022),
Joe Slack (2021),
Kris Kanaly (2020),
Carl Shortt (2019),
Rick and Tracey Bewley (2018),
Joy Richardson (2017), and
Collin Rosebrook (2016).
What this really means is that any time I am not at my day job or doing things necessary to life and health (sleeping, eating, taking deep calming breaths...) I am painting in my studio and assembling these paintings. Nights, weekends... that's what I'm doing.
Until June 30, 2025.
People at the launch party gasped when they learned I was doing all originals. "Wow, that's insane," they all said.
Maybe.
But that's okay.
Because it's worth it.
- M
Read more about this project at www.maddoesthings.com/alliedarts
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