Well.. I got my Sketchbook Project finished and mailed just in the nick of time yesterday! I'm not sure why I procrastinated, it was a joy to work on.
My theme this year was "Almanac" but I made it into a kind of dream Atlas.
I came across this wonderful quote from the movie, Here, and just let the images flow keeping the beautiful text in mind. I couldn't explain it all to you, even if I wanted to. I just responded to the words, loosley thinking about how we all make up our own realities and we are like those map makers of old, just trying to chart our way, comparing maps, trying to make sense of the world as we know it.
"The story is still asleep. It dreams. Scientists and dreamers they traveled the world with watchful eyes and guzzled hope like water. The journeys were separate but their purpose was common. To map the world. One begged for money and pencils. Another tore his shirt to strips, carefully wrapping his shredded feet. Yet another, thirsty, near starving, suckled the sap from plants. No one had an easy road. Though utterly dependent on one another, most found the other's maps unsettling. They denied one's perspective by charting the land incomprehensibly, calling into question one's very being.
Still when they met on the lonely roads, the explorers would present one another with their maps. Some seemed to say so plainly, directly, "the world is like this." Others were more oblique, skating, impressionistic, unstable, they froze mere slivers of the infinite earth as it skittered by in orbit. If ever these maps could be gathered together, they would comprise an atlas of unsettling vision. A final proof that truth is conjecture." by Dani Valent - In Every Roaming Heart.
To learn more about The Sketchbook Project, go here. If you'd like to see what other Sketchbooks I've done in years past, plus a story I wrote for The Fiction Project, you can go their site and go to the 'Digital Libaray" from the menu at the top of their banner. Type in my name and, voila! you should see my other work. I know they are working on their digial library, so be patient. You can see about a million other amazing and cool journals as well. Warning: It's a rabbit hole…proceed with caution, lest hours be eaten up with deluxe inspiration!
p.s. this just in: a great little video about the Art House Co-Op from my fellow sketchbook artist, Cynthia Fawcett –
Check out her blog, Cynful Musings, to learn more about her work here…and see how she cleverly took over her kitchen as a studio space for her Sketchbook Project journal! Love it!
OMG, Fran, your book is WONDERFUL. I love the quote and the images and especially the band of stencil that flows across each page. Fabulous with a capital “F”! Can’t wait to see it in person. (also reminds me that I forgot to sign my book. 🙁 Hope they will let me do that later.)
Like you, I too procrastinated and then wondered why, when I had so much fun putting the pages together!
Great idea for your sketchbook this year Fran! Love the script like design running through each page.
I`d like to do another sketchbook project…next year. Working on an installation for EcoCreations this year…come on down if your in town!