The Sketchbook Project
Being someone who has always loved books, notebooks and sketchbooks of any kind, stumbling across The Art House Co-op’s Sketchbook Project made me giddy with excitement. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always treasured books as something truly precious- and a book with blank pages even more so. Taking the term ‘visual diary’ literally, I loved filling up those pages with whatever came into my head, combining text with images to create my own secret record of the world as I saw it.
To this day, I love the idea of a visual diary. Having the freedom to create your own personal treasure-trove of feelings, giving shape to all your thoughts, desires, and fears, is just pretty damn exciting. And it turns out that a lot of people share my love for the humble sketchbook. In an ingeniously quirky collaborative project, The Art House Co-op is calling for people from all over the world to make a blank sketchbook their own- and then to share it with the rest of the world.
The concept is pretty simple- they send you a blank Moleskine sketchbook, and you fill it up however you like. There are themes to choose from (like ‘I’m sorry I forgot you,’ ‘It will be fun, I swear,’ or ‘A record year for rainfall’), but these are just meant to inspire you, not restrict you, and you can respond to them in whatever way you choose. Aside from that, there are very few guidelines- so you have a delicious amount of freedom to create something that really speaks to you.
The completed books will then travel around galleries and museums all across the USA- as the website boasts, ‘like a concert tour but with sketchbooks.’ After the tour, they’ll take up residence in The Brooklyn Art Library, where they’ll be barcoded, so you can always keep track of where your book is and who has viewed it.
It costs $25 to get involved, and you have until October 31st to sign up. If you’re interested, check out the art house co-op website.
To me, this project has just enough quirk and charm to be truly wonderful. Now to just pick a theme…
