Fran Meneley

The Sketchbook Project

Way back in the summer I signed up to be a part of The Sketchbook Project. The brainchild of the folks at the Art House Co-op and The Brooklyn Art Library, the idea was to ask artists to submit a sketchbook for their permanent collection and to go on tour. As they put it, "It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks." They had 28,835 people request sketchbooks from 94 countries! The tour starts in February at the Brooklyn Art Library and then goes on to Portland, ME, Washington D.C., Atlanta, GA, Winter Park, FL, Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA. Go here if you'd like more info on where the tour will be in each city. If you go, you'll be able to check out sketchbooks to look at - even request one if you know someone who's on tour! Each sketchbook is barcoded, so we'll (the artists) know when someone has checked out our sketchbook to look at! How cool is THAT?

I took the pages that the sketchbook came with out and added in my own pages, made from my favorite hot press watercolor paper. My theme (each sketchbook had a theme so viewers could browse by theme) was "I'm A Scavenger". I've been collecting bits of found paper (aka trash on the ground), magazine blow-in cards, free postcards at restaurants - stuff my naturally scavenderous self is attracted to. It all went in a pile and got sorted as I began working in my sketchbook.

The covers were laid out and then some stencils were added...I had to be careful not to cover up my library barcode.

My work table looked like this for quite a while as it all came together...

...bits getting laid out...

...magazine blow-in subscription cards were cut up into bits to be reassembled. Who knew that junk mail could be rearranged with such a beautiful outcome? I like this so much - it's like paper mosaic - I think I'll experiment some more.

I used a view finder to see little abstract paintings in the wax paper that covered part of my work table. 

A piece of a Chipotle food wrapper found on the ground and a condom from a walk the day after Halloween ???? (unopened, or else eeeewwww). Both became bits of a larger collage landscape. 

The scavenger transforms the lost, the discarded into beauty. I call it found enchantment. Here's a little video of the whole sketchbook. Hope the tour comes to a city near you! Hours could be lost perusing pages and pages of this great creative concert.

 

When The Fire Lays Down

 

We have been besieged by a massive forest fire in the mountains just west from where I live. A terrible kind of beauty. 91 homes have burned and the fire, as of today, is zero percent contained. I have been visualizing rain and just holding all those affected in my higher thoughts. At night the firefighters say that the fire, "lays down", and it is then that they can make progress in taming it. Let's hope and pray it lays down soon.

Good Stories, Well Told...

It seems like everywhere I look everybody's suggesting Summer Reading. And while some of the books look good, I can't help but wonder if it's just PR department spin to sell books. Can they really be as good as the dust jacket suggests? So I thought I'd tell you about several stories that have captured my attention and my heart this summer.

The first is a book that I really loved, one that lives up to it's beautiful cover and dust jacket jargon - Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. Deep and beautifully written, the story swept me along and I was enchanted along the way. Set in India, Africa and the United States, it tells the story of twin brothers who grow up to become surgeons, following in their famous, but absent, father's footsteps. It's about medicine and healing. Family, love and betrayal. The immigrant experience and how geography is destiny, and finding your own country. I highly recommend it. If you are like me and like hearing writers talk about their work, you can hear an excellent interview with the author here.

  The intense image above is from a new photography show in San Francisco by the talented fine art photographer, Jennifer Karaday. The central question she addresses is, how do you photograph memory? Which is an intriguing idea. In her new show at Sf Camera Work, "Soldiers' Stories of Iraq and Afghanistan," she is interested in "staged narrative tableau paintings". As one soldier put it, "This allowed me to tell my story without telling the story." You can see some of the photos and read about the exhibit and Jennifer at the NPR Picture Show Blog. Dreamlike, arresting, beautiful. A chance for war stories to be told and heard in a different way.

Ok, it's not a story, but it’s my favorite art magazine of all time. And it's been my favorite since I got the first issue in 2005, Selvedge always delivers inspiration for the mind and soul.  It’s a British publication, independently published (bless them and keep the ad pounds and dollars rolling in), with the tagline: The Fabric of Your Life: Textiles in Fashion, Fine Art, Interiors, Travel and Shopping. It covers so much more than just textiles, please, please don’t be put off by that. So many of their textile spreads are like fine paintings and drawings. They report on art from all over the world. And I promise that if you splurge on a single issue (a steep $25) or a 6 issue subscription ($115.00) you WILL be inspired and informed and a better artist for the investment. And it is an investment. I keep all my issues safely tucked away and turn to them again and again for reference and inspiration. Save your pennies, buy a copy (I see it at Borders and at Barnes and Noble now - or urge your local library to get it) make a pot of tea and be prepared to be taken away to a place of sublime inspiration. www.selvedge.org. 

Celebrating The Light

Happy Summer Solstice! It seems as if the sun and it's radiance is showing up everywhere! After such a long winter I welcome each and every morning I can take my tea out to the garden and just breath in the luscious scents of summer! I am feeling the creative flow of this wonderful time of year and have been cleaning out the cobwebs of the winter and I'm brimming with new energy.

 

And did you hear this? I love this story of "Play Me I'm Yours." From today until July 5th artist Luke Jerram, in conjunction with the non-profit Sing For Hope, has plunked down 50 pianos across New YorK City and anyone can stop and tickle the ivories, play a song or nocturne or belt out a show tune. Luke's website describes it like this:

"Questioning the ownership and rules of public space 'Play Me I'm Yours' is a provocation, inviting the public to engage with, activate and take ownership of their urban environment. ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ provides an interconnected resource, a blank canvas, for the public to express themselves and share their creativity."

I LOVE THAT! You can check out artist Luke Jerram here. And here you'll find a map of where the pianos are in NYC. If you are in NYC (Seth!), please stop and play a tune for me. I know the vibrations will carry and I'll catch a glimpse of it in the early summer mornings in my garden.