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!

The Fruits of my Labors

Remember this?

Work in Progress

It turned into this:


Lighter Than Air, fabric, thread & paint

It's my rendition of our local Marine Corps Air Station LTA Base in Tustin, done for the "Scenes of Tustin" exhibition at Chemers Gallery. I used a vintage photograph as my starting point for this one, although it makes for a much better story if I tell people I chartered a helicopter and hung out the side with my camera to get the ariel shot...There are these two huge wooden blimp hangers there, and I've always loved them, so when this exhibition came around again (it's an annual show with the Tustin Art League), I decided to just do it and see what happened. It's a big departure from my usual artwork, which is photography, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out or if anyone would even like it, but surprisingly, people did! I'd like to do another one of something else once the inspiration strikes. I basically took an old photo, drew it bigger, made a pattern out of it, and hand-stitched a lot of fabric onto a stretched and painted piece of fabric.
Also, I went to Peters Canyon and wandered around with James and my camera and took this photo:

Boundary, digital photograph

This is much more typical of me as an artist. I like to photograph things that look a little lonely, for some reason. I like this fencepost, although I did overhear one person say "Well, I certainly wouldn't hang this in my living room!" but who cares. You can't please everyone!


Show Layout

 *Unfortunetelly I am waaaay behind the 8-ball and "Scenes of Tustin" is already finished. Hopefully next year I'll be a bit more organized in my personal life. I do think that any organizational skills I have are put to use at work and then I have nothing left by the time I get home.  




Is it Time For Cake Yet?

It's getting to be a super busy time in our lives right now, and our apartment is suffering for it. James and I both have big art projects on the go, and we end up sharing the dining room table - he frames on it in the morning, I cut fabric and sew on it in the evenings. And in the meantime, we have piles of fabric, sketchbooks, matboards, laundry and dirty dishes stacked everywhere. (The dishes aren't really our fault - our apartment had no hot water over the weekend and we're still not caught up once it was turned back on.)

Here's what we got up to before life got so hectic:


Enjoying a beautiful southern California day



Saw a fabric exhibition at The Muckenthaler in Fullerton - don't you love the Spanish tiles?



Succulents at The Muck

 

Time out in the garden



Our sweetpeas are growing



The first of the ranunculus at Trader Joe's



There was a huge sale at Art Supply Warehouse. So huge that the lines extended allllll the way back into the asiles. This is where I waited for over half an hour, suck next to the Fimo.



The cash registers are now in sight



At home with linolium blocks, acrylic paint in Raw Umber, a new paintbrush, a brayer, a baren, and a photo portfolio book

 Coming up, I've got this art project to finish, photos to go out and take, a choir concert to sing in, Easter music to be mastering, the day-to-day of work, laundry, dishes, food etc, a wedding to attend, and then it will be the end of April and my husband's parents will be arriving from London just in time for his 30th! I need a slice of cake just thinking about it all.