Creative Summer, Day 12, 13, 14: Cleaning Room

For the past few days I’ve been cleaning my room like crazy trying to look for my Sketchbook Project 2011 “library card”. I spent the last three days searching left and right while cleaning my room at the same time and I still can’t find it. Oh, well.. I either lost it forever or it will turn up eventually.

[05-17/18/19-11]

Sketchbook Project 2011 Entry

So I honestly do not remember how I found out about Art House Co-op, but I’m glad I did. So far I’ve done a few projects and I’m currently working on two more (A Million Little Pictures and the Sketchbook Project 2012).

There were so many good themes to choose from, but I decided on the theme “Sleepless” because it was easier to work with since I rarely sleep well and because I am a nocturnal and insomniatic being. (I think I just made a new word.)

The project was simple. You sign up for a sketchbook and pick any theme that you like (or have a random theme selected for you). You pay a small fee ($25) that covers the cost of the journal, shipping, and helps support the people who created the project.  Each journal has a label on the bottom right corner on the back. This label contains your name, location, your Art House Co-op profile address, and a unique barcode that catalogs your sketchbook. Once you receive your sketchbook you are free to do whatever in it as you please as long as you follow a few set of rules: (1) you cannot cover the barcode label,(2) you can use any medium as long as the book stays within the same dimensions when it’s closed, (3) you are free to rebind as long as it’s durable. Once the sketchbook is returned completed, they will insert a pocket with a small card that says something about you, the artist. The point of the project is create a library out of all the sketchbooks so they will not be returned to anyone and they will not be for sale. They will be part of a permanent sketchbook collection of the Brooklyn Art Library located in New York.

(Those were the rules for 2011’s project, but there have been some changes for next year’s, but I will get to those whenever I post about the next project. I think I pretty much summed up the whole project.)

So here’s photos of my entry:

 

So, that’s pretty much it for this post.

Sketchbook Project 2011 Trip

Today I realized that I haven’t really written much about my trip to Austin or how the Sketchbook Project exhibition went on any of my blogs or social networking sites.. so I guess here’s my chance!

First of all, I seriously wished all my family (who live with me) and my close friends could’ve gone to go see it, but I do thank them for the support they’ve given me. At least my mother was able to go with me and we had a good time and a good bonding experience. Plus, this was also my first time in Austin, so everything as truly new and exciting.

Oh, and to those of you who do not know what I’m talking about, then I suggest you use this [link] to learn more about this project. And while you’re at it, I suggest you sign up for the Sketchbook Project 2012 [here]. Now on to our story!

Austin is a 4 hour drive from my hometown, so my mother and I got up real early on the day of the event, packed our bags, gassed up, and we were on our way. Since it was my first time going to Austin, I was awake throughout the whole ride over and I was bouncing all over the place. I kept checking Art House Co-op’s twitter feed the whole way over to Austin to see if they had already gotten there and set up. After refreshing several times, they updated their status and said that they were having a delay and it would take about one or two more hours to get set up and open. Since we got to Austin earlier than we thought, my mother and I decided to hit up the capitol and see the teacher’s rally since the exhibit was going to be at the Austin Museum of Art downtown. I’m not exactly sure how many people there were there, but I do know that they came from all over Texas. Students, teachers, and even parents. It was actually a spectacular event to see. (Here’s more information on the teachers rally: [link].)

After exploring the capitol for one to two hours, we finally decided to look for the venue for the exhibit and check if their were anymore updates from Art House. My memory is a little fuzzy right now but it was some time around 2 pm when they were finally up and running. My mother and I parked about three blocks away so I basically made her run all the way. When we got to the venue the line was actually turning the block and I was a bit surprised to see so many people coming to the exhibit. I want to say we were in line for 15 to 30 minutes, but I did not care one bit once we were inside. I’m going to be honest, the room we were in was a little too small and it was a it disorganized, but I could understand since this was their first time touring.

There were basically three lines: one for creating library cards, one for artist sign-in & “mini gift shop”, and one for checking out sketchbooks. I signed in while my mother created her library card and they gave me a sticker that said participating artist. Finally when my mom got her library card, we went to the check-out line and both asked for random sketchbooks. Sadly we could only check out two at a time, but we took a long time to look through each ‘book.

In total we checked out 4 ‘books each, so we both looked at a total of 8. By the time we went through all of them, it was already 5:30 pm and they were going to close at 6 pm. Plus, we also had not eaten all day. We ended up leaving Austin and we stopped in San Marcos to eat at a Texas Roadhouse and went to shop at the outlets.

I can honestly say I had a good time. Everybody was really into the exhibit and I’m glad that there were a lot of people that turned up. Someone named “Christopher B.” even checked out my ‘book while I was there. We talked with a few people and even overheard a few stories by people around us about their sketchbooks. It was great. I know I didn’t write about my sketchbook for this exhibit, but I shall write that for my next blog.

Here are the themes and names of the sketchbooks that my mother and I viewed:

• (your name here) by: Stephanie Fan
• (your name here) by: Jean Bookman
• (your name here) by: Alexandra Ethell
• (your name here) by: Judy Gilmer
• A day in the life by: Bagi Suriyakumaran
• A day in the life by: Lisa Hsia (view full ‘book here)
• Revenge, by: Matthew Leahy
• Revenge, by: Melissa Minkowski (view full ‘book here)

While I’m at it, here’s another reminder to sign-up for next years Sketchbook Project [here]. I’m excited to see what the next exhibit holds for us.

Here’s some little extras: two photos provided by Linda of Curious Notions who unknowingly caught two candid pictures of me and my mother. Thank you again for sending me the high-res photos Linda. 🙂

And I also found a TINY slice of me behind the guy with the long hair and green jacket. (Credit to Art House Co-op.)

[Next blog posts.. my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2011 and the Kappa Pi art trip.]