What was the genesis of WWMD?

Stupidity, pure and simple. You want more detail.. oh okay. So some time around 2012 or so while perusing the Hirst Arts forums to avoid work, I saw someone had posted about an event where people hobbied for 24 hours just to see what they could do. I was intrigued and I started to wonder if I could do something similar but with paints instead of blocks. I saw it as an endurance challenge. A vision quest for painting. A sudden enlightenment when I crossed the 24hr mark.

The idea bounced around my empty head until the summer of 2013 when it turned out I would have the house to myself for almost the entire month of July and I had every other Friday off which created the perfect storm of ignorance, moxie, bad planning, and over-confidence. Also I figured that I would share the idea with my friends on the Reaper Forum in case anyone wanted to tag along. The first ever WWMD was from noon to noon which it turned out was harder than you think. The wee hours of the morning were tough, but I finished it. Important note here: I swore to NEVER do it again.

Which I did — for one year. So around the same time the following year someone on the Reaper Forums asked me if I was doing it again that year. Sorry I don’t remember who asked but they are probably in the witness protection program now anyway. I had the crazy thought that I could do it much easier by going from midnight to midnight thus doing the wee hours of the morning first and I could take a nap right before to help as well. Turned out the stars aligned and I had the house to myself for most of July again so moxie and chutzpah took over and I did a second one. This one it turned out was much easier but I had a great thought at the end of it. I should have done a time lapse movie of me painting for 24 hours… Damn… oh well. I’ll never do that again. Important note here: I swore to NEVER do it again.

Which I did — for one year. So in the summer of 2015 my calendar reminder kept beeping at me and reminding me to “STOP Thinking about IT? You know what!  WWMD!!!”. It is with a deep sense of irony that I have to report that it reminded me to do it again. So I decided that if I was going to do it again, I was going to try to make it a thing. I found a place online to get some ribbons made to hand out to all the people who participated, mainly so I could sport one at Reapercon.  So in July of 2015, I did it again, this time doing a time lapse movie of the event.  This one was hard because I was nervous about the filming so it made things a bit more tiring.  When I finished I saw the movie and I was pretty satisfied with it – but then I thought it would have been better if I had done it with the window open so you could see the light come and go.  Oh well. I’ll never do that again. Important note here: I swore to NEVER do it again.

Which I did — for one year. Then a nagging thought started peppering me again. “Dude… Dude… ” it said “ Its 2016. You should do it one more time. Just one time… Leave the window open in the background. It will be great. Think about how cool it would be. Don’t let me down… You can really improve on the movie.” So I caved and did it again. During this year, I had some people painting miniatures for a charity which I thought was pretty cool. Any way, I finished and the movie turned out great. My goals were accomplished so said “ I will never do that again”. Important note here: I swore to NEVER do it again.

Which I did — for one year. In 2017 I had started a new job at SDSU and I was willing to just let this one slip by. Well that little voice popped up again. “Dude… Dude” it said “Do it one more time…. This time for charity! You could raise money for your favorite charity. Heck you could have a special category for it with a special award for anyone who does it…. No really…” So I did it again and we raised some money for charity. I raised about $100 for the habitat for humanity and it was really satisfying. It was a very satisfying way to end the whole thing. Or so I told myself I will never do that again. Important note here: I swore to NEVER do it again.

Which I did — for one year. It was 2018 and the voice was back. “Dude! Dude!” It taunted, “I have a great idea. Lets put a clock in shot this time. It would be so cool to see the clock spinning the whole time while you paint. Hey did you realize that this is the 5th year anniversary? Well it is.” After some thought, I realized that it would be pretty cool to see that — especially if the window showed the outside. I decided to do it again with the with the idea that I could use two cameras to capture it from the front and from above. so to sum up. I did it again. I liked the results. I told myself that I would never do it again Important note here: I swore to NEVER do it again.

Which I did — for one year. It was 2019 and yes I was preparing to ignore the voice successfully this year. “pst…. pst” the voice nagged at me, “You know that giant Cthulthu you got with that Death May Die game from CMON? You should do that one. Just paint one big miniature for 24 hours. it would be so cool! You could airbrush most of it then move on to the brush and finish it. You can post the whole saga on your website. “ Okay, I just caved in this time. Fighting was too much work. Ironically I botched the timelapse movie this year — taking a picture every 20 minutes not every 20 seconds. I told myself that I would …. blah blah blah you know the usual. Important note here: I swore that blah blah blah you know.

2020 — so this year I am not fighting it. My plan is to paint miniatures representing my DnD party. I have the coolest DnD group and I need a theme for this year. We also added a Community Builder challenge so this fits nicely into that challenge.

You get the idea…  Every year I say I will never do that again but…. I do.    In 2018 we had the 5 year anniversary of the event which was pretty cool.  We have shirts with our mascot you can buy now, I give out poker-chips for the event and the charity challenge, and maybe ribbons.  Some groups have organized discords to paint together, while others just post their work on Facebook.  It’s all good and it’s all fun.