The Sketchbook Project, 2015

I participated in The Sketchbook Project in 2011, 2012, and 2013. I skipped last year, but signed up again for 2015. It's a crazy thing. Folks from all over send in $25 to receive a small blank sketchbook. They fill it up, following a very few rules, and then send it back. Just like a rock star, the book goes on tour, and then is retired permanently to a sweet little library in Brooklyn, New York. Who would do such a thing? Buy a book, work in it, and then send it on its way never to get it back? Only about 70,000 people, including yours truly, that's who. Anyway, to learn more about it, including the tour schedule, click on the link above.

When you sign up for the project you can pick a topic, although how it is interpreted is up to the artist. In other words, anything goes. I selected "iconology," for no better reason than I like the sound of the word.
I had no other thoughts in mind at the time, but ultimately decided that one way or another The Statue of Liberty would play a part. It is, after all, an icon, it is in New York City, and so am I. It also happens to be one of my favorite things, and Lady Liberty sometimes finds her way into my own little creations.

It then occured to me that it would be fun to do a little visual mash-up of Ms. Liberty and some other iconic images. Here is my completed book, soon to be on its way to Brooklyn. Which tickles me, as Brooklyn is where I was born and raised.

All sketched (except for the cover image, which is a rubber stamp) with a Micron pen and lightly colored with watercolors. And did I mention how much fun this was to do?

The Sketchbook Project, 2013 Edition

This is my third year of submitting a book to the Sketchbook Project, and it was a close call. Life really got in the way and I wasn't sure I'd get it in the mail on time, but I did. And I got the confirmation email that it was received and catalogued. I look forward to visiting the library in the spring with my also participating friends to see as many books as possible. I have many online art friends I may never get to meet, but every year I do get to enjoy their sketchbooks.

I had chosen the theme "Travelog" because I envisioned doing sketches and watercolors wherever I went. Trouble is, I really didn't go many places and didn't do too much sketching. However, I did take a lot of classes, go on several retreats, and made a lot of art. So I transformed my book into a travelog of my projects.

My original cover (no picture) was of passport stamps but I covered that with a collage made of scraps from many of the things I did.

 

 

 

The inside of the front cover lists key words in my artistic journey:

 

 

My travels were more mental and emotional than physical (I didn't get much further than NJ and CT), but travels they were.

This was a crayon resist experiment that could have gone better, but it taught me something, so not a failure at all.

 

 

A class with Dina Wakley inspired me to do more bird paintings at home.  (This should really be the last photo, but since blogger has been giving me fits for two days, I'm leaving well enough alone, and it can stay where it landed.)

 

 

 Learning a bit about zentangling was something I very much enjoyed.

 

 Making stamps from a variety of materials, including this foamy type stuff:

 

 I did try to sketch an everyday object now and then:

 

Lettering classes with Joanne Sharpe, both in person and online really did improve my writing: 



I took a wonderful class with Doreen Kassel.  We made animal ornaments by covering plain glass ones with polymer clay, adding features, baking them, then painting them with oils.  Since I couldn't include one in the sketchbook, I did my best to draw one that I did.  I LOVE this little bird!

 

 



 

The workshops I've taken with Lynne Perrella and Ann Bagby have been a great influence.  I am mad for stencils! 

 

What I learned from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is how a very simple hand carved stamp can be used in many ways on different surfaces:

 

 

An example of how I've learned to incorporate scraps from projects into a new piece, and how stenciling is one way to blend them into a cohesive work.

 

These pages are just a sampling of what I've been doing this year, but I didn't have time to include every class, every project, every experiment.  Or every wonderful teacher!  Seth Apter, Laurie Mika, Leighanna Light, Michelle Ward, Michael DeMeng, Sandra Koterba, Dyan Reaveley, Ingrid Dijkers, and Dawn DeVries Sokol all taught me so much, and I wish I had had the time to do pages in my sketchbook to prove that point.

 

 

 

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.

The Writing's On The Wall

This year I am once again participating in The Sketchbook Project (for more information, click on the link on my sidebar).  A quick summary for those who don't like links:  When you sign up, for a small fee you are sent a sketchbook and a theme (which you can interpret as you like or even ignore....no sketchbook police lurking about).  There are some rules, but they are simple and are all about keeping the books a uniform size and free of embellishments that can fall off or hurt someone.  The books (last year 28,000 artists from around the world requested books and about 10,000 actually finished theirs) are sent back when completed and then they go on a road trip.  Last year we had fun visiting the tour in Brooklyn, NY where it originates and viewing the books of many of our online friends.  And some friends in far away places caught the tour in their home towns and got to see our books in person.  Click HERE to see my post on last year's sketchbook and HERE to see photos of my visit last year.

My theme this year is Writing on The Wall, and I had fun with it, being pretty literal and just making like a grafitti artist.  I actually sent my book back way ahead of the deadline, and look forward to the start of the tour this spring.



The Sketchbook Project And A Little Piece of Paradise

I returned from Punta Cana on Friday, slept for a few hours, then headed out on Saturday to meet Pat for our visit to the Brooklyn Art Library, temporary home to the Sketchbook Project.  We both submitted books, and several of our ATT friends did too, and we were anxious to see them before the exhibit leaves for its tour of the US.

Here are the books (about 28,000 of them), all scanned and cataloged and waiting to be looked at.

To view books, you can ask for a specific artist, a theme, or just tell the folks behind the counter to give you any books of their choosing, and you can look at four at a time.  I first requested my own book and Inge's (she's a long-time online friend and artisitic collaborator, and she lives in Belgium).  We each had the same theme, Dirigibles and Submersibles, and did very different things with many of the same materials.

On the left, Inge's book; on the right, mine.  Notice the same stamp?



Inge's book on top....this time, notice the same Graphic45 paper on both our pages?

Inge requested a photo of me holding our books.....sorry that Pat caught me without a smile!  I really was having a good time.  Honest!

The turquoise tag was for me!  Inge tucked it into the inner pocket of her book and I have to tell you....it was a real hoot to open it up and see the little ticket on it that said, "for Eileen Bellomo in New York."

I had a list of ATTers who told me they had submitted books, but sadly, I couldn't see all of them.  Either they were not yet cataloged and on the shelves, or were submitted under different names, or I had the spelling wrong.  We tried and tried, but several were never found.  So sorry!  But here are the books by Lisa, Barbara, Pat, and Paula:

And after a bit of a search I also found Marlene's:

I don't know this artist from California, but fell in love with his sketches:

Here's Pat, engrossed in a sketchbook:





And this is in no way a commentary on my experience, just a bit of Brooklyn graffiti we saw on our way home.

As I said, I just returned from 5 glorious days in the warm Dominican Republic sun, and not to rub it in for those of you still experiencing this awful winter, but......here's a little bit of paradise: