24gjp3derm This is page 5 from my sketchbook. I am participating in The Sketchbook Project through art-house co-op.
Here’s how it works, I receive a blank sketchbook with a random theme. Mine is Friends of friends of friends. I interpret and fill the book and then mail it back to art-house co-op. Sketchbooks then travel the country where they become part of an exhibition and library.
“Sketchbooks offers a glimpse into an artist’s life, which is why we want to make a publicly accessible library of sketchbooks that people can browse, peruse, and check out. We think that this sketchbook collection has the potential to open a new line of communication between the artist and the viewer, since the experience of making and viewing are both so personal.” -from the site
Once I received my theme, I was overwhelmed with how to start. That is, until I realized that Friends of friends of friends means the same thing as Everything is connected.
Almost everyday I collect things. Feathers, rocks, tin, notes. I always have. I tend to look down when I walk. I am drawn to others who collect, and artists who transform their collections, as that too is my aesthetic.
I do not have to teach this trait to my students, as they are young and find treasures in everything. What I do, however, is value their findings and encourage them to observe, ponder, associate and often create with them.
My sketchbook page has a feather from my morning walk, a Latter Day Saints card that my daughter received on the metro from a very sincere woman (with kind words for her), and sparrows and candles (from a collection of images I reuse in my work).
What is sacred or spiritual through Friends of friends of friends? is my sketchbook question, answered through collections and connections known and unknown.
Sometimes I am challenged because I have trouble following my young students threads or connections to a provocation or idea (I am certain my own art does the same to many.) I have learned to not shut out what seems to make no sense, and follow the path they are sharing with me. I have learned it often leads to discovery.
I serendipitously received an email today from a former student who is vacationing in Maine.
Imagine my happiness when I opened the email, to find only this jpeg.
Everything is connected.
24gjp3derm
Great post! I love the sketchbooks project, I didn’t understand what it was about when you told me about it . Can photographers play too?
Yes, any type of art can go in the sketchbook. I encourage you to do it!
i like the sketchbook idea very much. friends of friends of friends would also be if i told a few good friends to tell one friend that you are doing this and if that person checked out this site and wrote you back. 🙂 i’ll try it.
Hi Friend of a Friend ~
I love the sketchbook project Marla. I’m sending you a poem I wrote about teaching high school. If it’s too long, or you would rather have an image or photo instead, let me know and I can easily come up with something else. I looked at the page you posted for a long time. It’s beautiful and seems to send little messages tumbling all over the page. Your friend of a friend, Jeannine
Thank you, Powerful poem.
I needed inspiration for a new page, and out of the blog, comes you. Friend of a friend.
I couldn’t figure out where to attach a file – so here you go.
DISENCHANTMENT OF SECONDARY ED.
(After Wallace Stevens’s Disillusionment of 10:00)
The halls are haunted by facts and figures.
Students are not dancing the tango in gowns
the color of smoke or sea water.
Pens and pencils don’t write
in orchid scented inks
and the lunchroom
is not a gambling hall
where eyes and diamonds wink like lucky stars.
Corridors don’t lead to tunnels of romance,
where swan-shaped organs play songs of love and death,
and none of the teachers are giving away
truckloads of cash or fabulous prizes.
The halls are haunted by people
who don’t reveal their dreams.
People don’t bring tiny presents
to someone whose name they don’t know.
No one stands up in class and announces that, instead of
Michael, he will from now on be called
“Jartran, Ruler of the Seven Realms.”
And nobody admits to cracking open candy
with bare teeth, imagining a cruel lover’s heart
destroyed by a slip of the tongue.
Only here and there,
students’ minds,
like blown windmills,
spin new order from a universe’s rogue energies.
~Jeannine Arlette