A 400-, now 1200-day project
On July 1, 2023, I began a project to model the passage of time and the way natural changes and fickle chance together cumulatively affect a life.
I set out to mimic a “life” transforming and to visually document how all the additions and all the subtractions balance out. For 400 days, I rolled a die on a stand-in life—a 36 X 36 inch work on paper—and cut out a piece where the die landed. The size of each hand-cut circle is roughly proportional to the number on the cast die, 1 through 6, with all the 6s being slightly smaller than a 25¢ coin.
Along with making the daily random subtractions, every few weeks I added to the surface as impulse took me. Change of palette or pattern, experimentation with various tools and media, the application of new marks and text: all fair choices for life changes.
By day 400 (August 3, 2024), this life showed no signs of collapse despite the daily removals. I decided to continue the process for another 400 days. By day 800, September 8, 2025, the whole was still robust.
This slow-motion act of transformation is now underway for another 400 days. The next reckoning at 1200 days will be October 13, 2026. Updates at: instagram.com/georgina.montgomery.art.
