The Sketchbook Project

Again found via the lovely Vicki...what an awesome idea of user generated content not in a digital context! Makes me wish I could draw.

The Sketchbook Project

Each artist is sent the same blank Moleskine sketchbook. We've only got two rules: first, the book must be used in some way - no sending us back an empty book or a completely different book! Second, the sketchbook must stay within its original dimensions (because we don't want to have to provide an extra suitcase just for your book while we're touring the country).

Each book will be given a barcode so we can easily catalog it into The Brooklyn Art Library system. Once we catalog it, artists will be able to track where on the tour their book is viewed and how many times someone pulled it from the shelf - we want to make sure you can stay connected with your sketchbook!

The availability of sketchbooks vary each day, so sign up quickly to reserve the one you want! You have the option to choose the kind of Moleskine and the color of the cover when you add the project to your cart over to the right.

thunderbolt and lightning... very, very frightening!

....I love storms, particularly ones that light up your whole house with that flash of silvery light before the boom, the crash....the opera? I'll stop with the musical references, but nothing quite thrills like the smell (yes smell!) and sound of ozone in action. Makes me think of all those long forgotten geography lessons on evaporation and precipitation, about the far too many documentaries on the weather I have watched....and Muffins the dog I had growing up who, if he was still with us, would be up on my lap the minute the first crash rang out!

SUNDAY

Glad moment: *flash*....Boom!

Aren't you glad I'm back?

If you think the posts below magically appeared perhaps while you were napping...(I mean carefully watching Le Tour de France...) then the answer is yes. Things got busy. This blog didn't! But I'm back....I think I've lost some days in here somewhere...but I try my best to be the bearer of glad tidings.

TUESDAY

My bed! Finally my bed!

Glad moment: it made it up the stairs...now who wants to come over and try it out?

WEDNESDAY

Office pranks. If you think I'm kidding when I say I'll send you the bill in the internal mail, I wasn't. One perfectly delivered faux-invoice. A day to wait for the response.

Glad moment: the smugness that only delayed gratification can bring.

THURSDAY

Quick wit delivered by return internal snail mail. How I do love a sense of humour.

Glad moment: keeping pedants in business.

FRIDAY > SUNDAY

Lost somewhere in France.

MONDAY

Rest night at Le Tour de France...

Glad moment: finally a night in bed early!

TUESDAY

see Friday > Sunday.

WEDNESDAY

Old friends, old art...Abstraction at The Art Gallery of NSW followed by the perfect antidote, Victorian Visions. Don't get me wrong my bower-bird eyes lit up at the works in the Abstraction exhibition. The Mondrian and Braque works especially feel like old friends and I comprehend the momentous shift this exhibition tracks...but there is just something so lush and seductive about voluptuous figures and the quality of heavy oil work of the Pre-Raphaelites and their other Victorian-era friends that stirs something deep, or should I say much deeper.

Glad moment: 'other' art making my heart sing.

THURSDAY

Thinking about escape (I mean er, travel) plans!

Glad moment: The more I say it, the more it forms as a tangible alternative.

FRIDAY

Yep...I'm king of the mountains! Wearing polka dots did it today.

Glad moment: Yes, the lack of sleep does effect my wardrobe choice.

SATURDAY

Rollin with my homies...and eggs for breakfast.

Glad moment: Eggs taste better in the company of beloved girlfriends.

How I am feeling right now...

Isn't it great when you hear a song and it fits you exact mood?

My annual holiday

It's started! Is there anything more grand than Tour de France...ok possibly being at Tour de France could top merely enjoying it from my armchair perspective but I'm glad today to be looking forward to 21 days of French summer time fun (although we are in The Netherlands at the moment!), Mike Tomalaris, daily Gabriel Gate recipes, helicopters flying over châteaux...oh and a cycling race. Day 1 bodes well for Saxo Bank...(go Cancellara!) and make sure you check out this lovely website http://tdf.sbs.com.au/tdf2010/

Glad moment: Fabian Cancellara's thighs.

Why you should quit your job and travel around the world...

Found via @vickiah on a site called The Art of Non-conformity, so who's up for it?

What is dangerous, however, is when delayed gratification becomes an excuse for not living the life you want.

How many people do you know that actually do the things they say they are going to when they reach arbitrary ages of leaving the jobs they have given their lives to? Far more common is the downsizing of dreams along the way.

If you want to play golf all day and take your medication at regular intervals, the 40-year career track plan should work well for you. If you have other ideas or ambitions, though, don’t kill yourself as a slave for the future. Instead, go and figure out where you want to travel and do something about it.

Cheers, it's cold...

THURSDAY

Other people's leaving drinks. Any excuse to stop work at 4.30pm and have a glass (filled and re-filled for you) and some chatter.

Glad moment: never having to refill your own glass.

FRIDAY

New bed! (finally...the fact half of it hasn't made it up the stairs ain't great, but hey a good shove and it should make it fine....

Glad moment: lounging on a new bed even if it's just the mattress and it is still in plastic is a wondrous feeling.

SATURDAY

If it's cold, if it's July....it must be time for le Tour! (getting up at 2am tomorrow for the prelude is probably not the best way to make me glad but nonetheless!)

Glad moment: 21 days to go!