About the Persona Project
On the evening of 23 October 2012, Adam Mclevey had an idea. Never one for convention, he thought he’d do one of those 365 projects. While most people would do such an undertaking with some pre-planning or on a significant date (1 January being particularly popular for such things), Adam decided to start that night.
He got to work and painted a small canvas with his usual character, Steve, in the persona of a treasured childhood favourite, Lion-O.
He then realised the slight difficulty. He’d have to do the same again tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. On weekends, holidays, birthdays, days he was under the weather, as he prepared for fatherhood, as he moved house, as he lost pets, days he didn’t know who to paint, days he had too many people he wanted to paint.
The result was 365 canvases that were officially part of the project and numerous others that came from suggestions that didn’t make the final cut.
Of course, that isn’t the full story. Lion-O wasn’t actually the first persona. The Persona Project actually grew out of the 2013 Calendar, Somebodies, which had just gone into production the weeks before. And that calendar grew out of the previous year’s calendar, and even the hundreds of Steve canvases, and going back even further, the One Pound, One Stamp project.
All canvases shown here are sold.