When the student is ready, the teacher will appear… Without fully realising I’ve been needing-looking for a creative project I’ve been feeling the lack. And, I need a creative outlet that gets me out of the kitchen, doesn’t involve flour, butter, sugar, eggs, food processor, saucepans or washing damn jars.
A few years back Anne Lawson proposed The Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook just as the G.O. and I were settling after relocating from city to country-coast followed by an around Australia roadtrip, and the timing didn’t feel right. Two years later, cue aha moment when I read a post by Richard Guest of the blog The Future Is Papier Mâché about the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project.
Following the link Richard provided I found plenty to interest me… Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project is a “crowdfunded library of artist sketchbooks that anyone can join”.
“Founded in 2006, Brooklyn Art Library is a creative platform that hosts interactive projects accessible to anyone. We are the largest collection of sketchbooks in the world. Housing over 40,000 sketchbooks on our shelves and over 20,000 in our digital library, we fuse the digital with the analog to create a one of a kind experience for all of our artists and visitors.”
Follow your own theme or go with one of the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project 2018 themes… “Go-between. Disconnection. Bizarre. Things I’ve left behind. Standstills. Rituals. This one thing… Burdens & Brushes. Homonyms. Stitch & story. Infinite sketch. City streets. Melancholy. A visual short story of the day we met.”
You can opt for standard and digitized versions. The current 2018 sketchbook project deadlines are ORDER BY: NOV 15th, 2018 / SUBMIT BY: FEB 15th, 2019.
“After the due date we’ll exhibit the current year’s collection of sketchbooks both at the library in NYC and out of town. Everyone who sends their completed sketchbook back in time will have their book included, and later cataloged into our permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library.”
The Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project website is www.brooklynartlibrary.com. Find out more via the FAQs, and order a blank sketchbook here.
I decided to sleep on it. If I could come up with a starting point and theme I’d go for it.
I signed up this morning.
“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” ~ Albert Einstein
daleleelife101.blog 
Good for you. I’m in an assimilation phase at the moment. I go through one of these every now and then, just prior to launching forth into new or revisited creative projects. Getting started can be the hardest part. Best wishes to you in your endeavours!
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Thank you. You are so right, getting started I needed a stimulus. The time is right I think, and creature of habit I’m acccustomed to working within projects and to deadlines.
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lol – good for you! But…what happened to the horticulture studies/ambitions?
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I’m multi-tasking!
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lmao! You… have too much energy!
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I’m looking forward to watching progress on this one. I love that you’ve included hygge, a word that really doesn’t translate well into English but has a Dutch equivalent popular in my family: gezellig. It encompasses not only coziness, but also friendship, togetherness and fun.
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To kick start creativity I’m working with what I’ve got… and hygge is something I want to explore. Gezellig sounds wonderful, something we all need in our lives ☺
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‘Hygge’ methinks is a word hard to translate unless one culturally belongs to those who ‘feel’ it! I still remember the US expat Ron Smith in his great Swedish blog ‘Lost in a pot’ pulling me up a couple of months back for not using the quite correct term of ‘hubane’ in my own birth language if Estonian . . . it is way, way more and deeper in meaning than ‘cosy’ or ‘comfortable’ . . . perchance it is a word plain needed in NE Europe: oft cold, dark and serious . . .
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It’s a fine thing that hygge is making its presence felt in popular language, culture of the wider world beyond its origin 🤓
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Awesome! This is so cool! And so YOU 🙂
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Ahhh, thank you. Why not 🤗
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Good on ya. I have found that a creative hobby is the best thing about retirement. Most of us are too busy making a living to be creative when we are younger.
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I’m not sure if where I’m at is retirement but I appreciate having more access to time & space. I have too many pastimes so adding one more seems like the thing to do… one of my favourite hashtags is #nothingsucceedslikeexcess ☺
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No surprise to know that I love this idea! Your list resonates ~ you will do great things with it, becomes it comes from your heart. I hope we can have peeks along the way. 💜
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I was sorry to pass on the opportunity to participate in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook collaboration… this makes up for it… somewhat ☺
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🙂
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Back at you 😘
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Love this EllaDee – and thanks for the mention!
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What an interesting project. Best wishes and have fun with this new project.
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Thank you. It’s a tiny little sketchbook but a fun way to ignite creativity
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Inspiration will come, Dale. I can see your little book emerging, the colours of your dreams, a diary of sorts about the garden.How exciting: I hope we get updates.
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It’s a tiny sketchbook but big fun filling it I think ☺
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Just initiating something and feeling that creative bone is what catapults us into something greater. Sometimes, for me, even the smallest spark can lead to something quite satisfying. Enjoy the adventure!!
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You describe it perfectly; it’s been nice to think about something new and creatively different to the food and horticulture I have been focused on.
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