My sketch book – virtually


Enza in the laundry basket

Thousands of sketchbooks (including mine) are being exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.
After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be cataloged and available for the public to view.

The Art House Coop sent blank sketch books to 28839 artists from 94 countries. Just under 10,000 books were returned — all of which will be on display. The tour started in February, 2011. I decided to participate even though I’ve never been much of a journaller. Sometimes I found it difficult to fill the pages, and in the end, I glued old postcards into it to fill some of the blank spaces surrounding fun little sketches. (Which made it look very nice.)

I decided I’d start by telling a story about scavenging handed down through the generations of my Calabrian family. In Italy, our family nickname Cristadella implies that to survive, scavenging was something my ancestors were very good at. There’s a story about an ancestor climbing a tree to steal eggs out of a bird’s nest. I was able to continue the theme through the book, but just like any good story, there are turns in and out which don’t always help develop the plot. But it was a drawing journal, and that’s how I used it.

Anyway, imagine thousands of these little notebooks all touring the country. They were in Seattle last week, but I was unable to get away to see them; they were here for only 1 day.

You don’t have to chase them down, here is a link to my own journal . As much as I liked the idea, it was so huge that the internet interface was ponderous and slow every step of the way, as thousands of books were handled and scanned. The website has gotten a little faster now, so I am finally looking around at other people’s journals. So far, only one person has seen my journal (besides me that is), so I am not sure that all the work will buy me much fame.

There are lots and lots of other opportunities for people who are artistically inclined, like contests and challenges, juried shows, art fairs. This project wasn’t that expensive, and in the end, being part of a permanent collection in the Brooklyn Art Library is a nice honor!

,

3 responses to “My sketch book – virtually”

  1. Giulia, I am glad you like Enza. The truth is, she is not really a black cat. She is a tricolor. But she is almost black.

  2. My name is Giulia and I live in Italy.
    I like this picture because I love cats and I have got a black cat!
    Congratulations, you are really good!!
    Goodbye

  3. It is a nice honor!
    I looked through it all and found we have a lot in common. I also check pennies (but just to see if they are wheat pennies – that’s all I know) and have drawn my cat from an above perspective (while sitting on my lap) and while sitting in the laundry basket. Very nice journal.

Leave a Reply