I'm taking part in the 2013 version of The Sketchbook Project. You sign up, pay the US$25 fee (plus an additional $30 if you want your book to be digitized to be viewed online - I decided not to go for that but my friend Colleen, who is also participating, did) and they send you a blank book to fill up any way you want. It measures 7 inches by 5 inches and the finished volume can't be thicker than 1 inch. It's filled with 32 pages of white paper that seems like regular photocopy weight and has what they call a "sturdy chipboard cover". You can take the book apart, change the paper or add your own pages, whatever you want, as long as you don't exceed the size limits.
On the back is a label with my name and city on it and a bar code for identification which is to remain intact and uncovered.
The books are to be finished and mailed back with a postmark of no later than January 15, 2013. They then become part of a travelling exhibition that will be going to various places in North American - Brooklyn, Austin, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Portland, San Fransisco and Los Angeles, to be exact! Once the travelling is finished, the books become part of a permanent collection stored at the Brooklyn Arts Library, which currently numbers over 22,000 books from over 130 different countries. How amazing is that??
If you'd like to get more of an idea about the project as a whole, you may enjoy watching this eight (8) minute video: The Sketchbook Project, London 2012.
I've had my book for a couple of months now and it remained completely blank until this morning, when I completed my first page. I've had a theme in mind for a while now and the other day, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. with lots of ideas in my head for what I could do. Now it's just a matter of putting it together, which is fun and challenging and exciting to do.
It's also a bit daunting, both the idea of having all these blank pages to fill as well as knowing that the finished book will be available for anyone in the world to look at! But I'm also excited about the idea of having my artwork on display like that.
So now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to work filling those pages! I'm keeping Dina Wakley's words in my mind: "done is better than perfect". It's my first time and it doesn't have to be the world's best sketchbook ever made but it will be my very own.
1 comment:
I'm with you. My sketchbook has been sitting around. Now I'm down to the wire and it's still sitting around:( It feels like college cramming. I have to get going. . . . but. I hope you are feeling better today. xo
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