It's coming.

It’s coming.

This is a mock up, but it is very close to what the final will look like

Eleven years in the making, and I Am Route 66: Portraits, Centenial Edition — the book — is almost here.

I’ll be honest with you: I’m wrecked, and I know I’ve been quiet. I live with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. It’s chronic pain that runs on its own schedule, not mine, and May and June were a long flare. Most of what I had left went into working on the finish of this book. It’s one of the most complicated things I’ve ever made.

Chicago BEGIN Historic Route 66

It was supposed to be out in 2020. I started in 2015. Then 2020 became a nightmare for a lot of people for a lot of reasons — my publisher went under — and life kept finding new ways to slow it down. Eleven years.

In that time, I’ve driven Chicago to Santa Monica — the beginning and the end of Route 66 — nine times. Not all of it on the old road. Only about 80% of the original Route still exists, and if you stick to what’s left, every trip runs through every town, hundreds of stoplights and stop signs. On a schedule, with people waiting to be photographed, you understand Eisenhower’s interstate real fast. So, I ran the interstate a lot. But I’ve driven all of the original Route more than once, and in 2020 I drove every mile of it at once. I’m glad I did. You learn a lot about America by staying off the interstate. You learn a lot about yourself.

The Gateway Arch in a Blizzard, St. Louis

This started simply. Portraits of people I found in an eclectic coffee shop in Texas, right on Route 66. You might see a businessman in a suit talking financial trends next to a tattooed artist with blue hair planning a show with BDSM overtones, next to a soccer mom pitching Amway between updates on her kid’s science project, next to a couple from Slovakia talking in their own tongue about things only they knew. That’s the glory of Route 66, isn’t it? Not just Americans of every kind, color and background but also people from all over the world.

I wanted to celebrate that whole colorful panel of humanity. But I learned a lesson I think every portrait artist has to learn: a portrait of a stranger, no matter how interesting, is still a stranger’s portrait. How do you connect the viewer to the subject?

I am... I regret... Before I die...

I could give you a tidy origin story. The real reason runs underneath it. Those were the questions I was trying to answer for myself — having had the foundations of my faith, my understanding of America, and my future stripped away. I didn’t have the answers. So without really knowing what I was doing, I started asking other people for theirs.

Boy howdy.

Route 66 Arizona

What was supposed to be a one-time, 64-portrait art show (God bless America, why did I not do 66?) turned into nearly 5,000 portraits and more than a decade of my life. And the stories. Wow — the people I met, the things I heard, what it taught me, good and bad. It would take volumes to share it all.

And who knows. This might just be the first of them.

If your body is unreliable, it doesn’t have to stop you. It just means the work comes in waves. This book is eleven years of waves.

Amboy, perhaps the most photographed neon sign in the world

—

One of the 5,000

Route 66 turns 100 in 2026. I Am Route 66 is an Official Route 66 Centennial Project — approved by the Commission Congress established to mark the Mother Road’s centennial. So between now and the centennial, alongside everything else, I want to share some of the people I met out there.

This is Wayne “Buck” Mayden.

PORTRAIT — Buck Mayden

I am authentic, dynamic, incorrigible, courageous and meant for greatness.

Before I die, I will accomplish being a husband, father and life-long friend. I will climb mountains, sail seas, walk paths not taken, risk everything, love big, laugh as much as possible, and be in the moment whenever possible.

And then there’s the middle question. I regret. Look closely at his sheet and you’ll see he started a list. Dressing as a clown. Black fingernail polish. Southern Comfort. Too much fried chicken. Sleeping too much. Watching too much TV. Eating too much candy. He wrote them all out.

Then he crossed every one of them off and wrote a single word.

NOTHING.

That’s the whole portrait. That’s why I do this.

—

Here’s how this works. Some of what I send is free — the road, the faces, the news. The deeper stuff, like the book (Magic Window) I’m serializing right now, is for paid subscribers. That’s what makes the rest possible.

Eleven years is a long time, and the road isn’t cheap. If the work means something to you, a paid subscription gets you all of it — and keeps it coming.

If a subscription isn’t your thing but you want to throw something in the tank, you can buy me a coffee and I’ll be grateful for it.

Buy me a Coffee

Either way, I’m glad you’re here. The book is coming. So is the next face.

— Jim

P.S. — The best way to make sure you actually get these is right here in your inbox; if this one landed in spam or promotions, dragging it to your primary inbox tells the robots we're friends. If you want the portraits and road photos between issues, I post them most over on Facebook — [Jim Livingston Art] and the [I Am Route 66] page . Come say hi.