Sketchbook Tour ~ to Grand Rapids?

Lets bring the Sketchbook Project to Grand Rapids! Wouldn't that be great, to have our city as a stop on the tour?

Here's how:
*tweet@arthouse
*sign up to Participate in 2013 (I just signed up)
*or tell them about our great art community on Facebook

If you aren't familiar with this project, let me tell you all about it.

First, you visit the site and request a sketchbook (it costs $25, but its worth it).  You can also pick a theme.  Last year, I picked 'I Remember You' and this time I chose 'Chronicle.'  Once the book arrives in your mailbox, just fill it with doodles, poetry, collages, photos, notes, ideas, sewing, painting, etc.  You DON'T have to be good at drawing or painting to participate- anyone that's ever felt creative can do this.  I don't consider myself  a fine artist at all.  No idea what you would fill your pages with?  The very best part of this process is that you have months to decide!  And don't worry, nothing is to simple or too elaborate.  Some people transform their book to become an intricate work of art with detailed cutouts, painting or even needle work. Other books are literally used a sketchbooks, used to collect ideas and filled with unfinished black and white pencil sketches.

This is my cover from the last book.  The keys were cut from the lyric books found in old CD cases. 

Here's a great idea for a book: if you are working on something else, use bits and pieces of that project to fill your pages.  In 2009, I was already asking people what they dream about at night for another big project, so I picked the theme 'Night Time Stories' and used dreams I already collected.  After sketching pictures for each quote (something I was doing anyway for the other project), I scanned and printed each one as a postcard.  The postcards became the pages and that was it.

All of the books are collected in Brooklyn and carted around the country on tour.  They set up for a day or two in big cities and sometimes major events where visitors can check them out, library style, to see your masterpiece. Every time your book is viewed, an email is sent letting you know when and where.

This is my amazing friend Jon checking out my sketchbook at the South by Southwest Film Festival when the tour stopped there last summer.

The 2012 tour is in progress right now with the next stop tomorrow in Lynn, Ma at lynnarts.