Photomobile

I just sent off my submission for the Photomobile—it's Art House Co-op's current project, where participants choose a theme, receive a disposable camera, interpret their theme in the 27-exposures on the camera, and send in the outcome. Similar to the Sketchbook Project, the Co-op will curate a traveling exhibit out of all photos they receive and take the show across the country—but this time, they'll be traveling in an airstream trailer that the library of images is housed in!

This project just sounded way too cool to pass up, and the timing was just perfect—I signed up and received my camera right before my trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras—and one of the themes is "Neighborhood Characters"—what could be more fitting!

I had a lot of fun capturing colorful images of interesting people down there to tell my story and submit to the project. Here's a few of my favorite shots:

I especially love the last shot; I love the white and black—even in the background awnings and windows—and the quietness of the street behind the couple. Almost feels like a small town in France or something...which is actually a quality that many places in the French Quarter have.

I have to admit, there was an interesting challenge to this project that hadn't really occurred to me until I got the pictures developed. We've become completely accustomed to digital photography—you can instantly zoom, crop, and view your shots unlike on these disposable 35mm point-and-shoots. We've also become used to looking at photos on screen, rather than getting the dingy drug-store developed prints of the past. So I felt much less in control with these, which I think is a big part of the point of this project. But, as fun it was to be surprised by what came out on my camera, there were a lot of shots that just didn't feel dynamic enough to include in my submission. But, I've still submitted most of the pics and will have to wait and see what they choose to include in the exhibit!

There's still time to sign up if you're interested—anyone can participate. Registration is open until March 31st, and you don't need to postmark your entry until June 15. The touring exhibit will kick off in Brooklyn in Fall 2011—you can find out all the details on Art-House Co-ops website.

Sketchbook Project on tour!

This past weekend was the kick-off for the Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project traveling exhibit with an opening reception at The Brooklyn art Library. I had a chance to stop by, but unfortunately it was close to the end of the night, and by that time they were trying to wrap things up and not allowing anymore check-outs. So, I didn't actually get to browse through any of the books, but it was a cool space with over 10,000 sketchbooks lining the shelves—I can't wait to get back there to peruse the stacks and take a look at how everyone interpreted their themes!

The exhibit will be at the Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg until February 27 when it'll pack up to hit the road on it's national tour. I'll coincidentally be in Austin, TX in March when it hits there—so hoping to check it out on the road too! The full schedule/tour dates are on the Art house Co-op's website.

Checking out the Sketchbook Project at Brooklyn Art Library

Opening reception, Saturday February 19

With Kristin Smith-my dear friend and also a participating artist in the Sketchbook Project

I also had a very cool opportunity to share a little piece about my experience with the project on Starving Talent—a resource site and online community for artists, by artists. It's a brand new website featuring all kinds of cool and inspiring articles and resources for creatives in all fields—illustration, design, photography, music, film. Sarah McGinnis—the organizer for the Tilsbury Publishing  project I participated in last May—now works on Starving Talent and and invited me to contribute. I hope to submit more to the site in the future. It's a really cool place for artists—check it out if you have a chance, and be sure to read more about the Sketchbook Project opening there! Thanks Sarah!

Yay 2011!

Happy New Year to all!
I'm a little late catching up with my blogging—2011 has already been off to a very fast-paced, busy start!

I'm full of inspiration and exciting new ideas for this year including some plans to begin to sell some products and prints featuring my art, as well as branch out to some new markets with both my design and illustration work. But—first project in the works: relaunching my website with a brand-new look! Keep an eye out for that soon.

In the meantime, I've been working with some new publishing clients on some book cover projects. I can't share those for awhile, but it's been great to start the year with some new relationships.

I also finished up my sketchbook for the Arthouse Co-op's The Sketchbook Project. The touring national exhibit begins next month at The Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg, with a reception on February 19th. From there, the sketchbook collection will exhibit in 9 different US cities through July of this year, including stops in Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and more! Over 28,000 artist participated in this project so definitely keep an eye out for the exhibit in a city near you! (Schedule is on the Arthouse Co-op website)

Here are a few of my last pages from "Great hopes and Massive Failures" (a.k.a. a visual diary of my years as a single woman in New York City's sometimes vicious, sometimes hilarious, dating scene!)  I had a blast with this project, and even found myself inspired to keep some other ongoing theme-based sketchbooks...which I'll share some of soon!

Another sketch...

Just have to share one more from the sketchbook project...this one is one of my faves so far

More Sketchbook Project

Just sharing more of my progress with the Sketchbook Project.

My theme is "Great Hopes and Massive Failures" and this title is, for me, an opportunity to tell some of the funny (well, mostly funny!) stories from my past life in the NYC singles/dating world.
I'm really enjoying just getting to experiment a bit with composition & design—and lots of hand-lettering—to tell the stories and represent these characters from my life in interesting ways.

Sketchbook

Just sharing a few of my pages from the Sketchbook Project....

Great Hopes and Massive Failures

A few weeks ago, I posted about The Sketchbook Project—a nationwide art project and traveling exhibit that I am participating in, organized by Art House Gallery. I've been having a blast starting to fill up pages in my sketchbook, and will periodically post some of my progress with it as I continue over the next few months (The deadline to submit the finished book is January 15th).

Each participant was to choose one of the provided themes to base the sketchbook on. (Though these are just to be used as a starting point and completely open to interpretation.) I chose the theme “Great Hopes and Massive Failures”.

Like many single women, especially in New York City, I've racked up countless stories of bad dates over the years. And, I would guess I'm not the first of these women to hear friends repeatedly say (after living vicariously through my tales of single-dom) that all these stories would make for a great book. I don’t, however, consider myself much of a writer—so instead decided to use this opportunity to create a visual diary of some of these stories. After all, what greater hope is there than the exciting possibilities of what might come from meeting someone new? And how much more massive failure can you feel when those hopes are smashed...like, by the realization that the guy who just showed up for your first date with a half-drunken 12-pack of beer is a total loser!?

Of course, this diary isn’t meant at all to be a venue for some man-bashing rant. It’s simply meant to be complete fun for me, and just to make light of some of the ridiculous dating experiences I've had in the past. Taking a personal approach to interpreting this theme allows perfect ground for me to freely experiment with visual ways to tell a story. I really want to push myself conceptually, using metaphors and composition to create a narrative in new ways. Also—the nature of this kind of story-telling allows alot of opportunity to incorporate hand-lettering which I am always interested in exploring more of too. And the sketchbook format creates a chance to experiment with medium without the need for executing finished, polished pieces.

I'm sharing here my title/first page—I had alot of fun with this, looking to old circus-y/sideshow poster type for inspiration and weaving in hints of gold leaf accents. I'll share alot more as I continue sketching!