Week 6 - Reconsidering the Sketchbook

Looking at the sketchbooks of other artists gives great insight into their thinking process and the influences that guide their decisions.

Sketchbooks of New York artist, Jimbo Blachly.

The sketchbook does not have to take the form of an actual book - we can also think of the "sketchbook" as a way of collecting ideas, a tool or a means to link concepts together. This could be any form of archive, a collection of photographs, writings, as well as physical sketches on paper.

Jimbo Blachly, About 82 Springs (detail), 2002.

 Sketches or smaller drawings can also become the finished work.  The presentation of several small images have great impact when viewed in mass.

Barry McGee at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Artists have also looked at the book as a means of art-making in and of itself.  The act of cutting up books or inserting works into them can be seen as an act of transgression.  However, it can also be a creative endeavor, asking significant questions like what are the boundaries of authorship, property, and packaged knowledge?

Paul de Guzman

Ciprian Mureşan

Working through, in, and around the book as one of many ways to communicate our ideas: