The Sketchbook Project

Introducing the coolest thing Papa and I have made together in a long time. (Well, except for Big B and little b, of course). The Sketchbook Project from Art House Co-op.

As students together in college studying architecture, we carried sketchbooks everywhere, and prided ourselves on our improving drawing, composition, and conceptual communication skills. Now that we are juggling full-time careers, non-profit work and two very active boys, neither of us find the time we really need to nurture our own creativity--let alone each other's. Then this project came across my computer screen one day and a lightbulb went off!

Here's how it works: for a small entry fee, the Art House Co-op will send you a small and lovely Moleskine sketchbook and a theme, either selected by you or randomly generated, with which to fill it. We will send in our finished sketchbook, and it will join many others on a tour of libraries and museums nationwide.

Of course, I chose a random theme, and was overjoyed with the serendipity of it all when we received our book:

Our theme: Boys and girls. How perfect is THAT? We thought about it, talked about it, and came up with a way to treat this theme that we think will be fun for each of us while allowing us to see from the other's perspective. Rather than making each page "about" boys and girls, we decided to each take half of the book. On a given night, we pick a topic, and we each interpret that topic as we see fit. We talk about our interpretations, it's not secretive, not competitive, just...fun.

For our first topic, we did the old open-the-dictionary trick, and landed on the word PALM. These are our entries:

BOYS:

GIRLS:

I look forward to each night we are able to work on this project together. It's date night + creative outlet + being a part of something bigger than ourselves--and that's just fabulous.