On December 8th (the birthday of both the Buddha and Montano’s father), 1984 Montano is beginning her most ambitious attempt to use ‘art in everyday life’ as a means of spiritual development for herself and, she hopes, others. She has scheduled this Seven Years of Living Art to end in 1991, the year of her fiftieth birthday. During these years she will live, for the most part privately and meditatively, in her home in Kingston, a small town in upper New York State. Once a month for one day, she will meet with people in a window installation space in The New Museum in New York City to give ‘art/life counseling’ and read palms. In Kingston, she intends to spend several hours each day in a room, which will be painted a single color (for the first year, red). She will dress in the same color and will listen to a designated tone - the single color and tone will change annually.