Have you heard about the Sketchbook Project? The folks at the Brooklyn Art Library have invited artists of all kinds (a mixed media artist's dream) to participate in this project. Each year they show a list of themes on their website. You choose a theme and send them a small contribution. In turn, they send you a small sketchbook that you can do anything with so long as it stays within the suggested measurements. You can take it apart, remove pages, paint it, you don't even have to follow your theme if you choose not to, so anything goes, do whatever you like. It just can't have a lot of ephemera attached to it that could fall off and oh yeah, it can't smell bad. I think that's fair. It even has your name and a small bar code on the back so you could actually find an artist's book if you wanted to. Last year I believe about 5,000 artists participated. After you work your magic on the book, you must mail it back to the Library, the deadline is Jan 31 if you want to be in the show. This project becomes a traveling art journal show that goes all over the country. When the tour is complete it is permanently housed in the the Brooklyn Art Library. I decided to participate a little late in the game and most of the themes were no longer available so the one I chose is "The Writing on the Walls". It just screams "Mene, mene, tekel and parsin" doesn't it? (Daniel 5: 25) I used a lot of stamps, gesso and other art products. I struggled with my end result but learned a valuable lesson for next year...sign up earlier. I would like to share my cover and the first two pages with you. This is actually my first official Art Journal. It was really fun to do, I might even do others.
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| Front cover |
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| Back cover |
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| The first two pages |
I remember seeing this posted somewhere way back..it's such an awesome idea! Better late than never! Love your first layout, great idea about that story too (Belshazzar?).
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