Traveling Artist Books? Yes, Please!

Have you heard of The Sketchbook Project?

Patricia Gendrom, Quebec

Maria Luisa Sandos Cuellar, Oaxaca Mexico

I heard about The Sketchbook Project a couple of years ago. In a nutshell, it's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks. You sign up to participate, choose a theme, fill in the provided sketchbook, send it back, and then it's taken on tour around the country for lots of strangers to ooh and aah over. Basically, it's pretty cool.

I've signed up to participate the last 2 years, and unfortunately have never finished a book. How lame, right? Maybe 2013 will be my year! The first time, I chose the theme of "Inside Outside." I don't want to share anything I made for that, because it was quite terrible, to be perfectly honest. Last year, I chose the theme "In 10 Minutes." I set a timer to go off in 10 minutes, and then I just drew. Which I can't do very well, as evidenced below.

See? Do you blame me for going into photography rather than anything involving drawing?

So that's about as far as I got in Sketchbook # Deux. Needless to say, I was not a part of the 2012 World Tour. That didn't stop me from checking out the tour when it came to iam8bit in Los Angeles last month!


Sketchbook Shelf







Waiting Sketchbooks

James and I drove up to Echo Park to and spent a few hours checking out books, sitting on the floor, and perusing said books. One in particular was very touching, about a woman who chose the theme of "Fill Me With Stories" and filled the book with words and definitions having to do with her husband's death and dealing with her grief and moving on. It was probably the best book that I looked through. The woman wasn't an "artist," but what she did was so raw and revealing, you couldn't help but be touched by her story.

The books were at the venue for 2 days only. Entrance is free, and you can get a library card for free as well. You can check out 2 books at a time, and fabulous volunteers run around pulling your books from the rolling shelves. You can go back as many times as you want, and if you're in a group, you can all check out books and then swap them round. Easy way to see more!

If this sounds even remotely interesting to you, you can sign up HERE. You can find more details about this and other projects on arthousecoop.com, so check it out!