January 4, 2011
The Sketchbook Project
Logo of The Sketchbook Project
It started late last autumn when my friend Anne was looking for people to participate in The Sketchbook Project with her. I took the bait.
My creative muse was with me this November as I spent much of month working on two big projects:
* writing my first novel as part of NaNoWriMo
* participating in The Sketchbook Project (my sketchbook has just been digitized! http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/moxiemuse)
The Sketchbook Project asks you to choose a theme and I chose the most popular one, A Day in the Life. My book turned out to be more like a journal (lots of writing) than a sketchbook. I didn’t sketch a single thing. Lots of writing and collaging. But mostly writing. Things in my life that mattered. Like tea, essential oils, writing, cats, my darling husband, travel, all things Italian, and friends.
This project is an outreach effort of the Brooklyn Art Library. Each artist is sent the same blank Moleskine sketchbook. There are only two rules: first, the book must be used in some way – no sending back an empty book or a completely different book! Second, the sketchbook must stay within its original dimensions (because they don’t want to have to provide an extra suitcase just for my book while they’re touring the country).
Each book will be given a barcode so they can easily catalog it into The Brooklyn Art Library system. Once they catalog it, artists will be able to track where on the tour their book is viewed and how many times someone pulled it from the shelf – they want to make sure we can stay connected with our sketchbook!
Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.
After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.
28834 artists from 94 countries around the world participated. The tour starts February, 2011.
P.S.
Now that this project is over, I was motivated to continue on my creativity streak. I decided not only to participate in another Art House Coop project called Photomobile, where I chose the theme, Signs and Symbols.
The Sketchbook Project also spurred me to set up a new blog for all things creative in my life. It is called http://moxiemusespark.wordpress.com/
Basically, a blog that is less about using words to comment about my life and more about expressing myself through pictures. More right brain, less left brain. I’m still dusting off my creative muscle but feel free to stop on by or subscribe for new postings. I’m still pretty busy finishing up my novel and then working on revising it for submitting to a literary content in mid-February so I doubt there will be a whole lot of stuff on the new blog until late February.
April 15, 2009
Crystal skulls and crystal heads abound in my head today
MAX the Crystal Skull from Houston, Texas
My friend, JoAnn Parks of Houston, TX, is the caretaker of MAX the Crystal Skull. She’s visited my home with MAX and we’ve had many people come and sit with MAX and his energies. MAX is a true wonder of the world when it comes to ancient, dare I say even, off-world artifacts. MAX has been featured in a number of TV documentaries and in radio programs.
MAX came into the life of JoAnn and Carl Parks over 20 years ago when JoAnn, desperate to prolong the life of her dying daughter, was introduced to Norbu Chen, a Tibetan red-hat lama, who used MAX the Crystal Skull to heal her daughter. JoAnn’s daughter lived another 3 years as a result of Norbu’s work with MAX. Norbu gave MAX to JoAnn and told her that one day, she would know what to do with it. It sat in her closet for 7 years until through the result of a chance TV program, she connected with Nick Nocerino, the owner of another ancient crystal skull, Sha Na Ra.
Both MAX and Sha Na Ra are considered to be part of the legend-story of 13 crystal skulls, who were once together on earth acting as a library of vast knowledge. According to the legend-story, the skulls were dispersed when humans abused this knowledge, around the time of the fall of Atlantis or the Great Flood. Since then, they’ve been hidden until such a time when humans were ready to treat the knowledge these skulls contain with much better care. Some believe, this time is now and thus, some of these skulls are coming out into the open, including via wide media exposure. George Lucas, among others, are big believers of the power of these skulls as evidenced by his movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls.
JoAnn, with her lovely sense of humor, also told me about actor Dan Akroyd and his fascination with crystal skulls to the point that he created a product around his obsession: Crystal Head Vodka. I aim to try it one of these days.
UPDATE: Well, wouldn’t you know it but the same day I post about crystal heads, so does Ellie Crystal!
March 20, 2009
La bella primavera
The letter "A"
Sandro Botticelli's painting, La Primavera
Happy, illumined spring, everyone!
