4 articles

Yesterday, at some point…

Lost pictures for sketchbook

Some of the images of lost signs I used for my 2013 Sketchbook Project.

I have finally decided to start posting single photographs that describe some moment I had during the previous day. And I’m starting tonight, right before I go to bed. I’m not great at the insta-posting of today’s social media maniacs but I figure even I can get something up within 24 hours. It’ll be a good exercise. Sometimes you’ll get lots of caption information, sometimes just a word or two. Hopefully the pictures will always be worth looking at.

So above please find an image of a pile of prints that I made last night, to put into my entry into the 2013 Sketchbook Project. I had the idea ages ago, but only just assembled the book the night before it was due. One of these days, I’m going to start and finish a project before the 11th hour strikes.

One of these days…

A flight of fancy

art

This is a beautiful video that makes me want to quit everything and just do collaborative art projects forever.

Which probably isn’t going to happen.

But maybe I can work towards increasing those types of projects in my life from their current number of zero (unless you count the Sketchbook Project I’ve been helping my daughter with) to say, one or two.

A girl can dream.

Monday, monday

summer reading flowchart from flavorwire

Just a little chart to get your reading ideas flowing. Courtesy of the good folks at Flavorwire, my favorite listmakers.

Reading is fundamental, and there’s no better time than the summer to catch up on a book or two. (Or so they say… my summer has felt busier than the rest of the year, but I digress) Herewith, a few links related to this most elemental of activities.

First off, Annie Murphy Paul asks: Are readers an endangered species?

Here’s the Flavorwire summer reading flowchart in it’s entirety, with the accompanying article. Sure, it’s from last summer, but books never expire.

Check out A Cup Of Jo’s Joanna Goddard’s favorite bedtime stories for her kids (cause now she has two!)

Chip Kidd is one of the world’s premiere book designers. He’s also hilarious. Here’s his TED talk about why designing books is no laughing matter. Oh no wait…

Can’t go wrong with a critics’ favorites book list from NPR.

Anorak is my favorite kids magazine.

My daughter and I participated in The Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project (feel free to read my earlier post for details) and the tour is on. Check their site to see when the books are going to show up in your town. And then go see them! (you can see my sketchbook online via the digital library, too… but it’s less rewarding)

The sketchbook project

art
the sketchbook project 2013 brooklyn

Here’s my sketchbook, still drying at the 11th hour.

There is an excellent place in Williamsburg called the Brooklyn Art Library which is, first and foremost, the home of The Sketchbook Project– a library of thousands of sketchbooks filled with original drawings, paintings and photographs made by artists of all stripes over the past 7 years (it all started in Atlanta in 2006, but moved to Brooklyn, like so many do, in 2010)

Each year all sorts of doodlers, be they professional artists, designers, hobbyists or, for example, my daughter, fill the 32 pages of a blank sketchbook with their work, send it off to Brooklyn to be catalogued, digitized (if they so choose) and then sent off on a national tour, to be checked out by like minded souls all over the country.

It’s an awesome project, and I have wanted to participate for years, but have only now, just this week, finally gotten it together to hand one in.

At the last minute, of course. (See above photo of the spray adhesive drying in front of the heater before I take the book in)

But I had a blast doing it. My daughter and I both got our books at the same time. This summer. She finished hers in a day, and it is brilliant. (mind you, I’m biased, but still…) Another day for the collage on the cover and she was off to the races.

I had a more complicated concept that involved photos (because lets face it, I can’t draw to save my life) which I had to edit, print and affix to the pages I had decorated (that’s where the doodling part came in.) I started in August, finished the backgrounds over the weekend and then did all the rest of it on Monday night, between  the time my husband came home from work and took over (bless him) and… um… 5 am. Just like college!

Here’s a sample page, haphazardly shot right before I had to run out the door to hand it in. The left image is of some amusement park on Long Isand and the right is of one of the best performances of an operatic duet I have ever seen, at a community center on the tiny island of Ilseboro, ME.

The book made it to it’s new home just in the nick of time and will now go on tour and spend the rest of it’s days surrounded by other bursts of human creativity.

A few more pages. These were all shot in Mumbai:

And these are two different displays of items for sale. One at MOMA, the other in Rockaway:

Here’s hoping that this sketchbook will help inspire some other people to make something creative. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

Oh and here’s a cute video that the Art Library folks made about the project. Not sure when the 2014 sign ups begin, but you should all think about doing a book… it’s fun… and you don’t have to stay up till 5 am to finish it, I swear…