TEN-THOUSAND Sketchbooks!!

This (photo on left) is what 10,000 sketchbooks looks like, at the Brooklyn Art Library, an offbeat little place in a quiet neighborhood of Brooklyn. About double that amount of sketchbooks were sent out to participants in the Sketchbook Project, but these, here at the library, were the ones that were returned by the artists. The exhibit will travel around the country. Maybe you can see it when it shows up near you!

http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/exhibitions

I wish I could say that I looked at them all, but, well, it doesn't work that way. But, along with other visitors to the Library, we sure tried!!

I liked the mix of people there, young, old, New Yorkers, and tourists like us. We sat at a table and shared sketchbooks with interesting people, and it was a warm friendly artsy environment. Check out those two cool covers sitting on the table. (Their insides were cool too.)

Some of the sketchbooks (such as these above) were humorous; some were scary, others were provocative, and many were introspective.

These 2 images are from a lovely book titled "You'd be home by now..."

To look at the sketchbooks, we were allowed to sign out 4 at a time. You could pick them from a theme, and from there it was pot luck, unless you told them a specific artist you wanted to see. During a lull, the gal in charge let me pick out 3 books from the shelves whose covers drew me to them. So some of the sketchbooks were better than others. Some were obviously done by kids, some were not anywhere near finished, and some were spectacular. Some had pages that folded out - and out - and out further, or popped up. The media choices were widely varied, including pencil drawings, paintings, collage, printmaking, and even crocheting! Covers were left plain, or jeweled, sewn, padded, collaged, laced, and more. By the time we left, we had probably viewed over 50 sketchbooks, only scratching the surface. What an amazing collection of art!

Here's some more favorite pages:

The crocheted book (right photo above, and 2 photos below) was SO cool - there was a crocheted fish, a giraffe, leaves on a tree, flowers, and more. Every page was an adventure!! Here's 2 more pages from the book, including the brilliant pop-up was in the middle of the book!

And some more sketchbook images:

This has been just a small sampling of what we saw. ---------------- Anyhow, here I am, still in NYC. Got back a few hours ago from a great visit to the Brooklyn Museum, but I haven't downloaded my photos off the camera yet. Hopefully tomorrow...