i am NOT an artist

I cannot stress that point enough.  Hear me, people - I have no artistic ability whatsoever.  Please keep that in mind as we go forward into this post.

It all started when I recieved a little unexpected package in the mail one day.  It seems my friend and fellow blogger Jen entered me into The Sketchbook Project.  I was surprised and very excited! 

For those of you who don't know, The Sketchbook Project is held by the Brooklyn Art Library and provides an opportunity for anyone in the world to have a sketchbook full of their original artwork in a tour around the United States.  First you order a sketchbook, then fill it with whatever type(s) of art you wish and then you send it back to them to be included in the tour.  FUN!

My envelope included the rules card...

So I know what to do with my soon-to-be masterpiece.

...my Brooklyn Art Library card...

With my name on it and everything!

...and my little potential-filled sketchbook.  Isn't he cute?  I loved him at first sight.

Hello little guy!

Look at all of those blank pages!  Gotta do something about that.

So many pages, so little time.

The rules say that you can do anything to the book as long as it's the same size when you send it back and you send back the actual book and not a whole different one.  So the first thing I did was cover it.

Yes, that's wallpaper. Yes, it's textured.  Yes it is.

I wanted to keep it simple on the outside.  Next I decided on a theme.  I'm not sure what it is with me and having things wrapped up in a theme, but there you go.

My idea has the book beginning with a question...

With that question out there, I thought I'd provide a few possible answers.  That's where the theme thing ends - the rest of the book is like me (and most of my posts): RANDOM.

I decided that I'd share my sketchbook experience with my mom and the Bear.  I started with a little mommy tribute.


An acrylic paint version of mommy and me

 Remember how my theme was "How do you feel today?"  The possible answers that were on the above page were:

"...that you miss your mother?"
"...that motherhood is a precious gift?"
"...that your children are everything?"

Then I started thinking about space.  Yeah.

Spacey.  That's me.  And this is oil pastels.

The answers to the question on this page were:

"...isolated?"
"...the want to explore?"
"...sunny?"
"...spaced out?"

Then I realized it was getting late.  So I did this page.


I love a clock.  At least I didn't do melting Dali clocks.  Round pencil clocks are more me.


The answers on this one were:

"...late?"
"...rushed?"
"...as though time is precious?"
"...like time is dragging by?
"...older?"
"...timeless?"
"...guilty because you don't have more time to spend?"
"...as though you're out of time?"
"...that time heals all wounds?"

My mom did a few of the pages, like this one.

These were abstracts in acrylic.  They capture my "how do you feel" perfectly.

The answers on these two pages were:

"...that life is a fun, fast spinning ride and you hope it never ends?"
"...as though the world is going by so fast that everything is a blur?"
"...that you wish you were running through a meadow?"

Gosh this post has gotten long!  I wasn't going to share all of the pages of the book, but I had a few more. 

Do you want to see more?

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