In 2015, Sketch Artist Ken Foster started a project to draw or paint 250 portraits of friends, colleagues and acquaintances he’s met over the years and title it The Portrait Project. Here are Midcoast people you might recognize. For privacy’s sake, Foster only refers to them by their first name. See our original story here.

Shannon

This is Shannon. I met her several years ago when I was doing the Trek Across Maine — a 150-mile bicycle ride across our lovely state that benefits the American Lung Association. She's an Ironman triathlete and big supporter of the Dempsey Challenge — another bike ride that raises money for cancer research, education and support. She is also one of the funniest people I know on Facebook. I love her take on life.

A couple of years ago she got my attention when she posted that every day for the month of December she was going to embark on a different adventure. Here was her criteria - "an adventure is anything that 1) takes me out of my comfort zone; 2) I'm not 100 percent sure I can do; 3) I've never done; 4) I wouldn't normally do in December; 5) is ridiculously fun; or 6) is something I'm so glad I'm doing that I don't have to actually enjoy doing it."

And then she wrote about it in the funny and keenly observant way that Shannon does.

Shannon in fact embarked on a month-long quest to throw herself out of her comfort zone three Decembers ago, when she went snowboarding and rock climbing, videotaped strangers who were wary of being on camera, went on a week-long meditation retreat, then learned how to shoot an M4 assault rifle, a Glock 17 9mm pistol and a .45-caliber pistol.

But the most nerve-wracking thing she did as part of her personal challenge? She decided to pose nude for a life skills drawing class.

“I was up on Mount Battie one morning for a sunrise mountain workout and I was thinking about my body and when is it going to be good enough for me to like it?” she said. “I think a lot of women have these thoughts. I struggle quite a bit with my body image, really hating it, even though it does all these miraculous things and is quite strong. After this long conversation with myself on the mountain that I was going to resolve to make progress on my body image, for the first time, I was like ‘Stop it. It’s never going to be good enough for you to like it, so you’d better like it and it will be good enough.’ I just came off the mountain with this feeling like ‘F—–ing get over it.”

Shannon came off the mountain with a new perspective, only to get a message from Ken Foster. He told her he had an idea for one of her self-imposed challenges—to pose nude for their life skills drawing class.

“Of course, I was like [insert repeated uses of the F word]. I had no choice but to say yes. I am still terrified recounting it,” she said. “I’ve done the Ironman triathlon twice. There is no reason in the world for me to have one critical word about my body. Yet, every day, many, many times a day I turn a harsh and critical eye toward this body of mine that’s accomplished such amazing things.”

Foster recalls in his post about her: “And I have to say, she was a great model — interesting and expressive poses, and she held them for up to 20 minutes. It's not easy work! You can read what she wrote about that adventure in this blog post.”

Look for more stories to come in our Hot Sketch series.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com