Do Just 513 Pages

My friend Julio, a fabulous art teacher at Art Works Studio recently completed a project that most of us would have given up on long ago.

Each day he read a single page of the novel Great Expectations (513 pages) on a 1963 edition he found in a used bookstore. After reading the page, he used it as a format to create artwork onto it inspired by the words he had just read. He then scanned the sketched page and published it on different online platforms, along with a brief journal entry, exactly at 8:40 AM PST each day, the time in the novel when Miss Havisham receives a letter on her wedding day announcing her groom is not showing up. In addition, some of the pages are accompanied with an actual reading of the page by a featured guest.

The project started Monday, January 7th, 2013 and it will ended Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014 for a total of 513 days, 513 pages, and 513 sketches. This is exactly 1 year, 4 months, and 27 days. This required him staying up very late or waking very early to ensure this post was recorded on the various social media platforms at exactly 8:40 am. It also includes 12 hours of 213 people reading and recording a page.

Julio said he learned a lot of important lessons during this project. One is that it would have never existed for so long without the tremendous support he received from everyone involved, because otherwise he would have found a reason to discontinue. He learned deadlines are important, organization is key, commitment was critical, it takes a lot of hard work, and he became more positive as a result.  The result of his efforts is that f you spread the paintings out it would cover over 100 square feet, more than13,400 visitors came to the site, and over 9000 people followed his progress. People, myself included, fell in love with the project and cheered Julio on like a runner headed towards the finish line with enthusiasm, love and support. 

As an entrepreneur, we can learn a lot from Julio’s journey. My mantra is now “do just 513 pages”. But it starts with just one, and one more, and one more. Before long, you will have 513 and who knows what you can do with that!

And if you want to know more, visit the THE HAVISHAM HOUR to see all of the sketches Julio completed. Thank you Julio for inspiring everyone with your work, your dedication and your commitment. I was honored to read one of the pages for this project.

xo, jan