☀️ it's not too late. you're not too old.

For my birthday, I asked my podcast cohost to spend four hours in the car with me so we could spend a couple hours with a woman who started painting at 78.

"Hey Shailey, want to drive to Arkansas and back so we can look at Grandma Moses paintings for a bit?" A reasonable person would have asked follow-up questions. Shailey just said "absolutely yes." We drove to Crystal Bridges, soaked up every tiny painted cow we could, and headed home.

Best birthday present I could have asked for.

And now i'm obsessed with her.

Quick Grandma Moses refresher:

She didn't pick up painting seriously until she was 78.
She painted until she was 101. That's 23 years of art from a woman most people would've said was "done."
She never had formal art lessons. She was a farm wife and mom who painted what she remembered: sledding, sugaring off, Thanksgiving, neighbors.
A collector spotted her paintings in a drugstore window in Hoosick Falls, New York, priced at a few dollars each. He bought every single one.
She had her first solo show at 80.
Her paintings ended up on Hallmark Christmas cards, she landed on the cover of LIFE magazine at 100, and one of her paintings later sold for $1.2 million.
She once said if she hadn't started painting, she would have raised chickens. 😆 I'm glad she chose painitng.

Her paintings aren't realistic. The perspective is wonky. The people are little and flat. Some of the faces look like smiley faces. 😆. I bet she was a little self-conscious about that. But I couldn't stop staring. It looks like early graphic design/ illustration. (Which was my BFA.) Bold, flat, cheerful, full of tiny stories. The flaws were the best parts.

I also learned she started painting after her husband died. So of course I have follow-up questions. Was painting a way to fill the quiet? Did she secretly want to do it for years but felt like it was too frivolous for a farm wife? Did her husband discourage it and now she's had the last laugh? I'd give a lot for a coffee date with her. I want the drama.

Why this hit me so hard:

I changed my whole career at 38. And I felt insane. Like I had to apologize for it. Like everyone was going to say, "Wait, aren't you the photography girl?"

Nobody said that. People generously said "that makes so much sense." The fear was way louder than the reality.

And then I did some math in the Grandma Moses gift shop. If I reinvent myself every ten years, I get 48, 58, 68, and 78.

78! I could reinvent myself four more times and the last one lands exactly when Grandma Moses was just getting started.

More proof it's not too late (save this list for your next "who do I think I am" moment):

Leslie Jones joined SNL at 47, the oldest cast member ever to debut on the show.
Julia Child didn't learn to cook until her late 30s. Her first cookbook came out when she was 49.
Laura Ingalls Wilder published the first Little House book at 65.

This week's Audit: The "Too Late" Audit

Grab a sticky note and finish this sentence as many times as you can: "I'm probably too old to ____."

Circle one. Then dare yourself to do the smallest, messiest 10-minute version of it this week. Not the classically trained version. The Grandma Moses version.

The science

Economist David Galenson studied when artists do their best work and found two types. "Young geniuses" have a big idea early and execute it fast. "Old masters" figure it out by trying, tweaking, and trying again, and they often peak much later in life. Cézanne did his most celebrated work in his 60s.

So if you feel like a slow figurer-outer? You're in good company.

Mindset script

"What if I'm right on time?"

Bonus journal prompt

If I got to reinvent myself every ten years, what would I call my next decade?

Hit reply and tell me: what's the thing you'd start if "too late" didn't exist? Or send me your favorite late bloomer. I'm collecting them and I want a big list. (And if you have a friend who keeps saying "I'm too old for that," forward this to her. Consider it a permission slip.)

xoxo, Katie Day, your habit hype girl (write back soon)

P.S. If you're anywhere near Bentonville, the exhibit is up through March 29, 2027. Grab a Shailey and go.

We love you Grandma Moses!

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