The Sketchbook Project

BACK TO BROOKLYN

Yesterday, Pat and I trekked to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn to visit The Sketchbook Project.  Click HERE to see my earlier post and what my sketchbook looks like.  If you'd like to know more about the project, click on the link on my sidebar.  Sketchbook 2013 is already underway, so if you'd like to participate next year you can order your book and get an early start.

Williamsburg is an interesting and diverse neighborhood.  Once primarily a settling area for immigrants, similar to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, many of the original tenement buildings remain, now side by side with new construction.  There are lots of good restaurants, boutiques, antique shops, and other indications of the gentrification process that began a good number of years ago. 

The sketchbooks from the past two years are housed in a storefront "library," and all the books have been catalogued in such a way that visitors can go on a computer and select books to look at, either by theme, by the name of the artist, or request books randomly.  At the end of the month this year's books will begin a tour that will take them all over the country, after which they will return to Brooklyn.  If you can't get to Brooklyn you can also view books online.

Here are just a few of the many packed shelves:

Pat and I looked at our own books, the books of strangers from all over the world, and books by some of our online friends.

Here's Pat holding up her own wonderful book, which had the theme of Time Traveler.

Dawn Brown had the same theme as I did....Writing on the Wall, and here I am with both our books.

Jennifer Rogers-Daniels' book is full of her own drawings, including these pages that pull out.  Amazing book!

We looked at Marlene Moore's book too.  Her theme was Monochromatic and her pages were lovely.  Unfortunately, the photo I took was too fuzzy to use.  Sorry Marlene!  We really loved your book.

Kate Burroughs put together an amazing book of watercolors of many places in Hawaii and California.

After our visit, we strolled along Bedford Avenue and stopped for an early dinner at S and B (we ate there last year too) where we had delicious Polish food....peirogies, kielbasa, sauerkraut.  Yum!

Visit the project's website to see all the cities on the tour.  If it comes your way, take a look.  It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and check out the work of artists from all over the world.