Sketchbook Project

Art House Co-op, based in Brooklyn, had sketchbook project due a week or so ago and I wanted to show you some work that some friends of mine submitted. The idea behind the project: An artist buys a sketchbook from the Art House. It's a moleskin with 5.25 x 8.25 inches as the dimensions. Next, the artist fills it up, submits it, and the sketchbook gets entered into The Brooklyn Art Library after a nationwide tour. The books will be barcoded and available for the public to view. 28,838 artists from 94 countries around the world are participating. Tour starts February 2011.

Above is work by Austin artist Jill Alo. I own a Jill Alo painting (lucky me) and it's here in this post if you want to see--though my big fat head is in front of it. Can you imagine picking up a book and opening it to this? Love it. (Jill, comment on the medium if you don't mind.)

Next comes my friend who goes under the alter ego Missy Diggs. I did a screen grab of one of the pages, but visit this link for the real eye candy. I love the narrative aspect of this sketchbook. My only regret is not being able to hold the book and curl up with on my couch. It's already in Brooklyn awaiting it's first gallery stop.

Here's Carolyn Kimball's sketchbook. This one I actually was able to touch. I tell you, it's thrilling holding original artwork. As a printmaker, so much of our work is behind glass and being able to touch the real deal was really thrilling. The viewer is participating in a physical way, and to me it adds another level to artist-artwork-viewer. (Carolyn's book was created using proofs from prints. She glued them to the sketchbook pages. The pages are therefore nice and thick and the pages are deckled. All around thrilling experience.)

Pretty cool. Did I sign up to do this great project? Yes. Did I manage to put one mark into the book? No. So I am extremely impressed to know 3 people that did this project. If you participated too, please comment below so I can be impressed by you too. And if you took pictures, email them to me at csavage [at] savageartist [dot] com and I'll post them!