A Sketchbook Creature

Too tired for a longer blog tonight (after a lovely long afternoon making art at Bizzy B with friends) so just a quick post to share this one book from the Sketchbook Project with you. It was sitting in a pile of returned books when I went up to the counter, a pretty blue/green colour and about an inch thick.  I asked if I could take a look, its appearance was so unusual compared to the mostly thin brown sketchbooks.

This was the cover.

The insides folded up neatly and expanded in an accordion style when opened.

The label on the back gave the name and location of the artist, Lori Gillen, and provided a clue as to the creature that was to be found inside:

My sister and her friend Wayne were also intrigued:

I loved the way the eyes and the mouth were done on the inside.

Well done, Lori, a very clever idea!

The SKP In Person

I have to say, it was so exciting to me to visit the mobile library of the Sketchbook Project in person here in Toronto last night after work.  My sister Janine went with me and we both happily checked out a bunch of books in the two hours we were there, as many as we could before they closed for the evening.  (The books are small and only about 32 pages long, so you can read through them quickly.)

It's a simple process:

The library card is a small business card with a bar code on it.  You register your name and scan the card to choose a book using their laptop (by author's name or by various categories such as theme or "local"), then Steven or Sara pull the book from the shelf, together with the one beside it to give you a random choice.  Steven is the founder of the project, they are a husband and wife team, touring around with the trailer for the summer, driving it from city to city.

Here's another view of the inside of the trailer, with Janine waving for the camera.

We met this nice lady named Katie who showed us the book she made for the Mysterious Maps project.

She bound her sketchbook into a hardback book cover the same size, what a great idea.

All her pages were beautiful but this one of the solar system strung on wire threads simply took my breath away - totally awesome!

We also met Tracey, who made a lovely little book filled with fabulous photos of her cat, The Dude.

Once you have your book selections, you sit at one of the nearby tables and peruse through it.  Here I am with Tracey and Katie (at the opposite end of the table) and another lady, doing just that.

My sister's friend Wayne joined us about half an hour before we were done and at first, he didn't seem too interested in looking at any of the books, said he didn't need to get a library card.  But he took a look at a couple of the ones we had signed out and were passing back and forth and got hooked.  Here he is reading my book:

I tell you more about some of the sketchbooks I saw in tomorrow's post. I think you will be as amazed as I was at the variety and talent contained in these little books!

A Rare Friday Night Downtown

It started with this:

followed by dinner here:

then this movie:

All of it was awesome.  Details to follow.  It's late, need to get to bed!

The Joy of Gelli Printing

That was the name of the first class Dina taught at Bizzy B last weekend.  As my loyal readers know, I had already had some experience with the gelli plate, having been introduced to same by Barb, the owner of BB, a few weeks ago, and I was already slightly obsessed.  Having now had a bit more formal instruction from Dina, I can only say I love the gelli plate even more!

Here are just a few of the cool pages I made last Friday night, using techniques Dina shared with us:

The Sketchbook Project in Toronto!!

There are more than 27,000 books currently making up The Sketchbook Project collection.  The mobile library is made up of 4,500 of those books, including the one I made and submitted this past January (which I showed here and here) and it's touring around North American this summer, visiting 40 cities.  This weekend, June 7 to 9, it'll be stopping in Toronto at the Distillery District. The sketchbooks can be viewed any time between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. each of the three days.  In 2 weeks time, on Sunday, June 16th, it'll be in Montreal, the 2nd of the two Canadian cities the tour will be visiting.

 I'm planning to visit the permanent library in Brooklyn, NY, one of these days but in the meantime, I'm pretty excited to finally see this part of collection in person. Several of my friends also have sketchbooks in the group, so I'll be checking them out.  And when I say "checking them out", I mean exactly that.  You sign them out, like a regular library, and look through them right there.

Here's the project, explained in just 96 seconds! (the last 30 seconds are the credits, which as often happens, are the best part of the whole film!)

Why I Don't Cook

Dina signed my copy of her book the other day.

The book is awesome, by the way.  I pre-ordered it from Amazon after she was here last September and waited not so very patiently until it was published in February.  It was so worth the wait!

Here's what she wrote:

Normally, I would agree with her 100%.  Except that sometimes, things get a little out of control and suddenly, you realize...your kitchen has been taken over by art supplies and the art making process.

When that happens, you have no choice.  You've simply got to tidy up.

Or you could cook dinner in the microwave.  If you can get to it...

Then again, you could just eat out.

A Weekend Making Art With Dina

Oh, what a lovely weekend it was, hanging out at Bizzy B taking classes from Dina Wakley.

Dina doing a demo, surrounded
by her well used class supply of
paint and rubber stamps.

Dina's classes are chock full of techniques so she moves fast to get through all the content.  Of course, after trying to keep up with her over 15 hours of class in a 48 hour period, my brain is feeling a bit over-stimulated today.  All that colour, new information, fun and creativity is awesome but it takes some getting used to, especially compared to the rather mundane, somewhat boring corporate world that is my regular 9 to 5 routine!

One of the weird things about being immersed in a series of classes like that (5 classes in 3 days - one Friday night, one each Sat morning and afternoon, then again Sunday morning and afternoon) is that it's so easy to be completely unaware of what is happening in the outside world.

After class on Friday night, I walked back to where I had parked my car, only to find the road blocked by a police car and yellow tape sectioning off an area where a large tree branch had fallen down, bringing a hydro line with it.  Luckily the branch landed several feet away from my car rather than on top of it!

That's my blue car in the foreground!

On Saturday and Sunday, there were several times during the day when someone would suddenly remark, "Is that rain?".  We'd look up from our creations, gaze out the window and sure enough, it would be pouring buckets outside!  Next time we noticed, it would be bright sunshine again!

Meanwhile, we were cozy and dry indoors and completely absorbed in what we were creating.  Which was all sorts of cool stuff, by the way.  We played with gelli plates, drew faces, wrote graffiti, put poetry in motion and created with silhouettes.  Dina is really good at making sure her classes are full of information and techniques.  It makes for a fast pace but the results are pretty awesome.  None of my projects are quite finished yet, nor have I had a chance to take photos of most of it but as soon as I do, I'll be sure to share it photos here!