The Mile Long Scroll is the continuation of a daily drawing diary I’ve kept since June 17th, 2009. The diary evolved from sketches of my surroundings into a continuous illustration in which each page connected to the next, first horizontally, then vertically, mirroring how we absorb media. In 2018, I started the Mile Long Scroll: one hundred and seventy-six four-by-thirty-foot scrolls connected end to end for a mile.

The scrolls document events in my life, politics, pop culture, and travel. I take them everywhere, losing one while traveling to Rome after the pandemic. In 2024, 3,120 feet into the mile, I was burning out. I lost my studio, then my studio mate and dear friend, Jim Riswold, to cancer. The night of the 2024 election, I was preparing to paint a portrait of a Queen, but instead drew an image of a scalped and vacant man, scribbled “fuck this” in the empty cavity of his head. I then laid down my brush for 8 months after an unbroken stream of drawing every day for over 17 years.

Why was I drawing a mile? For the currency of a few likes? So I can train AI without my consent?

Eventually, I got a new art studio at The Falcon Art Community and started drawing again. Slowly began to remember that this project was not about accomplishing a lofty goal, but rather what it’s always been about: discipline. It’s about showing up every day and putting in the work, no matter how big or small. While AI might be able to train on my work and recreate my style, it will never be able to recreate my lived experience. I am not opposed to using AI; however, I fear it may rob us of what should be a cherished part of being human: the satisfaction of reaping the fruits of our own labor and developing ourselves in the process.