Artist’s Notebook

I have always romanticized the idea of the artist’s notebook. Artists like Freida Kahlo, Basquiat, or Renzo Piano all have these beautiful portals into the mind that reveal the deeper shaggier edges of their later finished work. One wonders if they put pen to paper knowing that these musings could later be seen by the inquiring minds of the entire world, or if they were truly private. My own scribbling changes depending on that lens. Will it be seen post mortem? Pre mortem…? My pen work gets a little tighter.

I have lost not one, but two sketchbooks in my time as sketchbook-having individual. One to an international flight, and one to the never-ever-hole of the universe. So it goes. The latter contained my college art major experience as a whole- thesis and all. It contained illustrated descriptions of my internal battle with chronic back pain, the joys of discovering the world’s foibles, my hypothetical label design for the new Raging Bitch IPA. These losses have made me less precious with my note taking.

Now I mostly take notes to capture technical ideas and work out possible kinks before they happen in gold and silver ($$$!). In the process of preparing for the annual Soirée, I have opened up again to the idea of a more polished notebook. I am happy to report that it feels incredible. I feel my creative threads picking up where they left off, dipping back into past pools of thought and making new connections. I feel that familiar sense of aggressive faithfulness to my very specific pens, and that careful awareness of the location of my book at all times.

Come to the Soirée (December 6 & 7, 204 Rigsbee, Durham NC!), and you can flip through and read my mind.