a sketchbook flip-thru | Something from the Studio 15
“Creativity is about connections, and connections are not made by siloing everything off into its own space. New ideas are formed by interesting juxtapositions, and interesting juxtapositions happen when things are out of place.”
I finally edited this flip-through video of a "patchwork" sketchbook I put together earlier this year.
By "patchwork" I mean a conglomeration of spreads created by pieces and parts from my creative practice, sketches, fodder, unfinished art journals+such - and even remnants from art I made 20+ years ago - all hanging around in my studio in various places.
Putting two sketches, paintings or visual ideas next to each other, that weren't necessarily made with one another in mind, is a wonderful way to see some of your own style or visual language coming through, without even really trying. You begin to see the way you make marks even as you change mediums or focus, the colors and movement, the energy within the simpler pages, and the beauty behind the messy pages and nonsensical leftovers.
This sketchbook is not one of my more intentional contemplative or intuitive practices at all, and it's certainly no masterpiece or poster-child for intricately completed art or art journaling.
It's a sketchbook. An idea book. A place of collection and everyday creative-randomness, noticing, expression... coming together eventually in unexpected ways. Unexpected visual dialogues and juxtapositions.
It IS a unique approach, though, in that I don't always put together sketchbooks like this one usually.
My current everyday sketchbook approach has more of a sequence in time as I capture ideas, and a lot more writing involved. But this one definitely became an interesting contemplation in its own right, in the process of bringing things together from a span of many years... with some pages that surprised me with a spark of curiosity and have led to more meditative or interesting explorations and ideas since.
Things had to be pulled out of their tidy places to be seen fresh in new relationships with one another. They found a new place to be, so there is a bit of that mysterious process paradox at play, too.
This video/sketchbook also includes a peek at a couple of sketches that did become larger paintings and meditations in my process. Those paintings are here and here.
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Also - that Austin Kleon quote is from his book Keep Going - it’s a good one.
Thanks for stopping by - Happy Creating!
Hali
