The Sketchbook Project 2012

It's here!!

I developed a serious case of sketchbook envy when I started blogging last December and saw the wonderful Sketchbook Project posts on many artists' sites.  So, imagine my glee when I happened to visit the Art House Co-op website the very day that they opened the sign-ups for this year's edition!

The Sketchbook Project is a traveling exhibition of sketchbooks created by artists.  Each participant receives a blank 5" x 7" sketchbook that will be exhibited on the 2012 international tour and cataloged permanently in the Brooklyn Art Library.  (The little barcode on the back will trigger a text or an email to the artist when someone views their sketchbook on the tour!)   The 2011 tour will stop in San Francisco in June - I'm really looking forward to visiting.

When you sign-up to participate, you are asked to choose a theme from about 40 topics.  They're really flexible with this (there's even one called "Untitled") but I felt that I needed to choose something to get myself focused.  I ended up choosing the theme "10 Minutes", since a sketch is supposed to be a quick drawing anyway, and so that I didn't create an unrealistic assignment for myself.  I figure that if I limit each sketch to 10 minutes, I won't procrastinate or stress about it.  Maybe.  We have until January 2012 to fill 32 pages, which seems pretty manageable, even for a procrastinator like me.  I'm also thinking of making it "10 Minutes in My Garden" to sharpen the focus, and to encourage myself to do more plein air drawing.  The cover is a wonderful blank material, just waiting to be jazzed up, but I figure that I may do that at the end.  (And no, that is not procrastinating, I don't want the work on the cover to get all messy during the year.  Okay, it may be rationalization, but it's not procrastination.)

I'm hoping to post some of the pages as I get underway.  They haven't yet provided a blog badge for this year's edition, but Shane at Art House Co-op promises that it'll be out soon.  I can't wait to slap in on my sidebar!  I'm really eager to see what other artists do with their sketchbooks, so if you haven't sign-up for one, get over to their website and take the plunge!

Illustration Friday: Lesson

Sometimes I oversimplify things, but I think that the world just might be a better place if we made sure that all children had a box of crayons.

Don't most kids these days own crayons?  Sadly, the answer is: No.  I substitute teach, and when we're doing the occasional semi-artsy project, I sometimes chat with the kids about what kind of amusements they have at home.  Nintendo and Wii?  Check.  Crayons and paints and pads of plain paper?  Not so much.  I usually end up giving my little speech about the fact that art supplies are really cheap compared to video games.  (You can still buy that glorious box of 64 Crayola crayons for under $5.)

Lest you think me a Luddite, I confess that I have nothing against computer games and video games.  (I remember my laundry backing up as I worked my way through Myst some years back, and my iPad is all smudgy from playing Cut the Rope.)  But kids need art supplies of their very own at home.  They need their own box of crayons, so that they can arrange the colors any way that they want to, peel the paper off, or even break one or two without anyone caring.  Today's teachers, God bless 'em, have to cover such a specific curriculum that there just isn't much time left for a lot of artistic freedom and creativity.  (I remember being asked, by my child's teacher, to outline in Black Sharpie all of the kids' illustrations in their Young Authors books.  I not-so-politely declined.)

"The arts give our young people the power to bring their own voice to the conversation about who they are and how they think."  So says illustrator and artist Betsy Streeter, who has a wonderful website called Drooly Dog. Its mission is "to help young people and their grownups develop their unique voice through art." Check it out.

Maybe giving kids a box of crayons and a big, fat pad of paper won't solve all of our problems.  But on a day when we're finding out that we have one less villain in the world, I keep wondering whether, when he was a child, anyone gave him a box of crayons of his very own.

This week's drawing was inspired by one of my favorite children's books, The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola. In this autobiographical story, Tomie tells of  the impact that a box of crayons and an open-minded art teacher had on his life.(You might remember that I told you last December about my own love affair with Crayola crayons.) This is such a wonderful book!

Happy Easter

Re-posting this drawing from a couple of weeks ago to wish everyone a 

Happy Easter!

Illustration Friday: Journey

This week's Illustration Friday word is "journey", so I give you...a shrub. 

This is Brunfelsia pauciflora, but I prefer its evocative common name,  

Yesterday-Today-and-Tomorrow.

Walking through our neighborhood, a friend and I used to pass one of these gorgeous plants, and we'd always comment on how much we liked it.  Once I finally learned its name, I liked it even more.  The name is derived from the fact that the blossoms start out a bright violet, fade to a beautiful lavender about a day later, and end up almost white.  Its poetic name makes it a perfect gift to celebrate a birthday, a new baby, any landmark along life's journey.

  "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

—Albert Einstein

Note: For some reason, my jpg images are looking fuzzy once they're placed into this post. (Click on the drawing if you'd like to see how it should look.)  If anyone has advice for me, I'd love to hear from you!

My Yesterday-Today-and-Tomorrow plant

Fabulous books, fabulous people

We all fret about the future of small, independent retail establishments these days, while lamenting the proliferation of the big, impersonal chain stores.  Well, in the past few days, I've had heart-warming experiences at both:

I'm lucky enough to have the world's best children's bookstore just a few blocks from my house. Hicklebee's is, quite simply, a treasure.  Do you remember the charming children's bookstore in the movie, "You've Got Mail"?  Hicklebee's is just that wonderful.  The owners, Valerie Lewis and her sister Monica Holmes, are quite well-known in the world of children's books.  On the walls throughout the shop, one finds amazing items which make up the Hicklebee's "Museum": artifacts and original illustrations given to the shop by the most well-known authors and illustrators.  (I've met people like Tomie dePaola and J.K. Rowling at Hicklebee's events.)  This magical shop was a big part of my kids' childhoods, so when I buy children's books, I head over there.

I've just recently become aware of the amazing books by Diane Hutts Aston and illustrated by the incredible Sylvia Long.When I bought A Seed is Sleepy at Hicklebee's last week, I ordered a copy of  An Egg is Quiet, and stopped by today to pick it up. I got to chatting with the woman who was helping me, telling her I liked to draw things from nature and that I was madly in love with Sylvia Long's illustrations in these books. She smiled and ducked into the back room and brought out this beautiful poster from the publisher featuring the author's next book, A Butterfly is Patient, and said "You can keep this." Isn't it gorgeous? So unbelievably nice.

Now, before last Saturday, I would have confidently crowed, "I know that would never happen at the big chain stores!" But, here's heart-warming experience number two:

You all know how much I love "The Fabulous Beekman Boys".  (If you need a reminder, click here and here.)  On Saturday, Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge were speaking about heirloom vegetable gardening and signing Josh's book The Bucolic Plague at Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco, and there was no way that I was going to miss it.  I wasn't disappointed: Josh and Brent were absolutely charming, and unbelievably gracious.  They chatted and answered questions of all sorts, and it felt like an afternoon spent with old friends.  Then, it came time for the book signing.  I had brought prints of my Beekman soap drawings to give to the guys, but, I warned my husband, "Those Williams-Sonoma people will probably herd us in like cattle and whisk us through in an assembly line."  I couldn't have been more wrong.

Aaron, one of the culinary experts at W-S, wove through the line and served us delicious shortbread cookies (a Beekman recipe) that he had baked himself.  As we got to the front, the W-S staff set up each person's book to be personally signed (some authors have stopped personalizing at these things and only sign their names), and  genially introduced each groupie guest to Josh and Brent.  The guys weren't stationed behind a table, but preferred to sign while standing the entire time because it was easier to hug people and pose for pictures that way.  Yes, another W-S sales associate happily took each person's camera (usually a cell phone) and patiently took pictures... of everybody. Josh and Brent chatted with each and every obsessed fan person as if they were old friends, even little ol' me with my soap drawing prints.  They remembered my blog post, which made my day...well, my year. (My daughter says that I look like a proud little kid on show-and-tell day at school...I think she's right.)

As I'd expected, those Fabulous Beekman Boys really are fabulous, but so is, surprisingly, Williams-Sonoma.

My favorite page spread from An Egg Is Quiet