Sketchbook Chronicles
I stretched myself a couple of months ago and signed up to participate in the Wyoming Sketchbook Project, organized by talented Wyoming artist and Executive Director of the Cheyenne Creativity Center, Desirée Brothe. I admire Desirée’s creativity and skill; she’s just a super nice person to work with too, so I signed up when she emailed about the project. Turns out, 35 other Wyoming artists signed up too, and we now have six groups of artists who will be working on sketchbooks.
As I re-discover and explore who I am as an artist beyond photographer, the sketchbook has been a bit of a mystery to me. I have a couple of sketchbooks, one large and one small, that I’ve had for years. I haven’t done much with them, which is kind of sad. The small one begins with a couple little street drawings I did while in Louisiana years ago, and then more pages filled with sketches of logo ideas and graphic design ideas that I eventually turned into real projects on the computer. That’s about it, nothing exciting. For some reason, I have had a block about how to use a sketchbook and what using it could do for me as an artist. That has changed!
A couple of years ago, I read the very popular book, “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. The book was enlightening and started me on my journey of re-discovery. I have been terrible about keeping up on daily journaling, however, a key element emphasized in the book. Participating in the sketchbook project the last couple of weeks has re-awakened the importance of daily journaling and art in my art journey.
I received our groups’ sketchbook first. I thought about all the time we’ve been allotted for the project, then was sidetracked by a major house project and some work assignments, and poof! A month or more had gone by without me starting to work on it. (I have apologized to the other two artists in our group who were waiting on me!) Then, it was an all out, self-induced stress fest to get my pages done. I’m glad it turned out that way, though. I learned the importance of daily art and expression, I learned that sometimes a great idea in my head doesn’t turn out on paper (and vice versa), I tapped through a wall of blockage into more creative thinking, and ultimately, I had fun with it.
There were a couple things I experimented with that didn’t turn out well at all. But here are my three favorite pages I created. As a group, we’re hoping to go another round between the three of us before the project finishes in August. I will be ready when I receive the book again. And my two almost empty journals sitting in my art desk? They won’t be empty much longer. I have the fire and the fuel to keep creating and exploring. I’ll try not to set expectations for myself, but rather, be open and free to the possibilities laying dormant in my mind. All I need to do is let if flow.
By the way, if you’re interested in following along on social media what other artists are doing and posting, look for the #WySketchbookProject tag.
*Roll over each image for more about what it is and medium used.