My August of Art – Closing the book
My August of Art was centred around filling, finishing and sending off my contribution to the Brooklyn Art Library via The Sketchbook Project.
My book is now in the post and on it’s way! Here are the last few pages and finishing touches.
I read Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist recently. I have always loved his Newspaper blackout poems. They are like a combination of poetry and art. I committed a sin and tore a page from a book I finished reading this year, flicked through and found the perfect poetry in one of the pages.
My couch and coffee table and floor in the lounge room are covered with pens and paper and crayons and wine and scissors and books and glue and things. This is not unusual, but the volume is.
The book had 32 pages. August has 31 days. So I wanted to represent the passing of those 31 days and my feeling of ‘What now?’ that I have finished the book.
I think the cover occurred to me when I was about half way through the book. The book is a visual diary of August, so the cover can be a calendar. I committed another sin in removing pages from an abandoned diary and then I filled the gap with my standard type of doodling.
The back inside cover has a standard section for artist information, so I thought a little self portrait made sense. Inspired by some single-line work sent to me by a colleague (thanks Gerard) I created 9 single line self portraits with Sharpies, and chose one to go in the back cover.
I folded the calendar over into the inside front cover, and it happened to have a notes section. I thought that would be a good spot to put an index with the titles of each page and what it is called.
I packaged the book and posted it off to the Brooklyn Art Library. Who knows when it will arrive, given the current circumstances.
I loved the process and creating something every day, and it was especially useful in a time when my creativity felt stifled… but a creative outlet is so useful. It has encouraged me to draw more, and draw every day. Even if I am not sharing it.
Thanks to Flo, who gifted the book to me.
