Sketchbook: 2007

For approximately a month now, I've been taking stock. My first big project has been to scan all of my sketchbooks since 2003. These represent the raw deal, the first impression, the play, the pondering, the manipulating...of potential finished work, of a planted seed, or simply the moment completed. I've decided I need to observe my own patterns visually, see when I was most productive or least productive with this important tool in an artist's life. The journey has revealed much to me personally and professionally. One conclusion is that I value process more than product, always have. So it is important to share this process, these years, with family, friends, students and colleagues. Art needs to be seen, period. So I'm attempting to share my sketchbook pages in as many formats as possible: Vuvox collages, facebook albums, and here on my own blog. I also planning on self-publishing a book so I can hold all of these in my hand at once, turning actual pages. I hope you gain some insight into me, you, or the act of art itself.

2007 represented further exploration of my frequent trips to Kenya, and the launch of a non-profit and community art project, face.africa. The continual making of mandalas, discovery of silhouetted symbols, and patchwork college and mixed media kept me busy. I shared all of these discoveries with high school students that summer again at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy.