I asked Dyer the other day to describe the early days of the One Thousand Thousand project. This is what he sent:

​This project started out of that leftover optimistic field of vision you have when you were a kid, a mindset in which fireman, astronaut, and fighter pilot were completely reasonable occupational goals that in your teenage years wears just as dumb and unrealistic into lofty audacity of writing the great American novel, start the next beat generation, redefine rock & roll or in the case of McHenry and I, “let’s make a million paintings.”
 
In our minds, at the time, that was a completely rational and bulletproof idea. On the level of that idealistic horse blinder mentality that generals in battle subscribe to when they keep telling the troops “we will all be home by Christmas.”
 
We honestly believed this project would take no more than a couple of years. What the hell were we thinking? A million? Holy christ ghost! As Jason has said while “a million” is a low end term nowadays, in actual production it’s a goddamn feat of unbelievable endurance.
 
I can assure you that we are going to see this through however long it takes. We are of stubborn Missouri “show me” stock and fueled by a dumb blind work ethic best stated by a quote from Hemingway:
 
 “Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”
 
Dares and determination aside, what I have come to find of great beauty with this project is that it provides me with a lasting connection with my dearest friend Jason. We all have had rare snow leopard, real deal holyfield friendships that with time, distance and difference have faded into a background of fond memory. That has never happened to us. Want to keep someone in your life hell or high water, my advice – agree to make a million paintings with them.
 
Over the years, this project has afforded us opportunities to connect with a great vast cross section of truly amazing people who thought making art a foreign concept. What I have always thought grand about this project is the vaudeville magic trick element to it that reveals the mildly uncelebrated fact that we all have at least one good painting in us (or maybe even a million.)

We're preparing to have another go at the 52 Weeks project and the idea is to start at the beginning of the year. Maybe sooner but there's still a bit of prep work to be done. The box frames we used last time were pre-manufactured and this time we're making our own. So far a small handful of people have tentatively signed on to do the project too and you're invited to do the same.

In looking back on it I'd still say that the 52 Weeks project was one of the more important bodies of work I've ever done. It was a big undertaking on many levels. It required a serious commitment of time and energy to devote a full year to really just stripping yourself naked in front of anyone that passed by. 

Okay. So maybe if you're interested in doing the project along with a few others then let me know. All the contact info is here if you don't already have it.

You can read some old Intro Notes from the early stages of the project and by all means check out the page [and any other info you can find] on my heroine Candy Jernigan.