DAILY SCHEMES
June 27th - July 27th, 2008
Sketchbooks are diaries of ideas, they inform the inner thoughts and thought process of artists. Each sketchbook uncovers or veils what one chooses to manifest. Paper cut-outs, newspaper scraps, collages, doodles, written words, paint, pencil and ink blemishes, all form and inform daily schemes. Hand marks are left as memories to be built-on or fully realized. Others signs are simply left as pentimentis. Intimate and as such devoid of commercial trade pressure, sketchbook can also be conspicuously public. Forgoing traditional means, Jillian Mcdonald, a film and video artist, uses a computer - the 21st century sketchbook/secretary- as a daily blog. Most sketchbooks, however, rather then inviting public interaction, are intimate objects. Several were conceived as elaborate books, following a historical lineage of livres-d'artistes (Nora Griffin, Susan Wanklyn, Alessandro Keegan). Some sketchbooks surprise by the consistent simplicity of lines filling their pages (Liz Ainslie, Colin Thomson). That there is little relationship between finished works and sketchbooks only points to the difficulty of defining the art diary. Several break out of the confines of the page and take on the form of bozettos (Derek Stroup, James Reeder). Each creative manifestation document the inner myosotis of individual artists.