Art House Coop : Sketchbook Project

I'm having this really weird experience. I have finished a project before the last possible minuet. Not just before the last minuets, which in itself is really strange, but months before the last minuet. I'm actually done with this so early that the deadline to join isn't even up!!! Seriously, this is really, really freaking me out. 


In case you are unfamiliar with this very cool, collective, grassroots, anybody can do it, project, here is the gist from their website : 

It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks.Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the world.
After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.
Anyone - from anywhere in the world - can be a part of the project.To participate and have us send you a sketchbook that will go on tour, start by choosing a theme.

Project dates

Oct 31st, 2011

SIGN UP BY

Jan 31st, 2012

POSTMARK YOUR BOOK BY

      April, 2012

      TOUR STARTS


The theme I chose this year was: Stiches and Folds. I thought I was going to be a lot more literal with my theme but it didn't turn out that way. Instead I played with line and shape a lot. I suppose I felt like my pen was the embodiment of metaphorical needle and pressing fingers. I hope you like.

12 secrets

I’m toying around with the idea of following along with this. (That’s me, noncommittal. It’s really self preservation. If I bail on one more thing I’ve committed myself to, I will have to be committed, literally.) It’s a communal diving into the book:

The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin

“an inspirational guidebook that offers twelve practices that will increase your creative success and help you to achieve your goals…” (from the blog) I have my cheesy detector up and operational, as this might be a bit hokey for me. But, I also recognize the potential of going through a book like this (if it’s good) within a community of bloggers / creative folks. See, the whole point of the website is to do, think about, write about, and read others’ experiences with the 12 practices.

The concept behind a book-blogging group is that a community of bloggers work their way through a book together, sharing their experiences by posting on their own blog and by reading what other participants are sharing.

Per the instructions, I’ve found myself asking where are you on the journey to your creative self ever.

Lately, just in the last few days, I’ve found my confidence shaken. It comes from looking at art that is far greater than mine. I mean I do get inspired from that experience, more so than anything else. But, I think when I feel like I’m hitting a wall.. getting stuck in a rut… it starts to make me feel paranoid that this is it. Nothing new will ever occur to me. Nothing will ever take hold of me and flow through me into a work that surprises me with delight.

Doubt, I guess, abounds. It is the ebb of the ebb and flow for all creative types, so mystical that otherwise logical beings begin to ramble on about jinxes and imagined vanishings of this thing called talent. We brace ourselves, remind ourselves that it comes around and around and around, like the rhythm of waves, like tides pulled and released by the moon’s gravity. But, it’s always, at least a bit, scary. Maybe it wouldn’t work if it weren’t. Maybe a forest fire doesn’t renew the forest as well if it doesn’t run wild.

I really don’t know where I am in my “journey to my creative self”. I’m in it though. That much I do know. And that’s more than what I had 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the journey itself is just really amazing.

moment five ~

of all I need is a moment occurred on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 1:20 pm.

click on the photo for details please

Project

Playing a little catch up here. Honestly, really, when am I not. <devilish grin>

all I need is a moment

(click on each triptych to get the stories behind them)

(week one ~ Friday, November 28, 2009 3:21 p.m.)

I've wanted to be part of a collective photo project for a while now and after four weeks working with my friend Cory (SeaweedLady) and her mom (struck by lightning)rc's , I find that I am firmly in the loving arms of a lovely photographic habit. We call it "all I need is a moment" for a few reasons. First, because the method to our triptych madness is to randomly select (via an ingenious board game Cory came up with) a day and time each week when all three of us will stop what we are doing and take a photo.

(week two ~ Thursday December 4, 2008 8:42pm)

Secondly, this project is centered around "a moment" because we all believe (and please ladies, if I am too liberal with my words and represent you incorrectly, do let me know) that the moment, any moment, this moment right now, is the most important thing there is. Catching ourselves, even if we have to arrange it, in a moment in time, in our busy lives, in places so many miles from others' whom we love, is like catching a bit of rest, a bit of slow down, a bit of noticing, reflecting, being. And when our photos of that being, that noticing of where, who, when, and even why we are combine, we feel connected to each other and maybe to the greater world, because we know that in that one moment, that one week, we were making the same choice to be awake and alive, together, and on our own.

(week three ~ Tuesday December 9, 2008 5:20 pm)

What we are doing here isn't revolutionary. It's been done, and is being done by many friends in bloggdom and on Flickr (3191, two girls two clicks, & noticing project are just a few examples). We have no illusions about that. I think the fact that this breed of project has become so popular speaks to the allure of photographic mindfulness. I'm honored to be involved with these women in this way. Their enthusiasm and openness is infectious. They have a sense of soul that goes deeper than the aesthetically pleasing photograph. They share slivers of their lives with me, and allow me to do the same. An honor, yes, it is an honor.

(week four ~ Wednesday December 17, 2008 noon)