Chopsticks

I always seem to include chopsticks wrappers in my sketchbook. They are a talisman of sorts. I have always liked the tiny informational graphics on how to hold your chopsticks properly. Apparently I do not have the proper chopsticks technique, but I still manage to get most of the food from my plate to my mouth without embarrassment. It all depends on how hungry you are (or how enticing the dim sum is).

Chopsticks (Keef)
sketchbook page
chopstick wrapper, photocopy, acrylic, gouache, and hand stitching
7 x 10"
copyright Kate Castelli 2008

Currently listening to
(or some songs that got stuck in my head this month...)
1. I Keep Faith -Billy Bragg
2. Family Snapshot -Peter Gabriel
3. If I Can't Change Your Mind -Train
4. Wonderwall -Oasis
5. Loving Cup -The Rolling Stones
6. Sleep Song -Graham Nash
7. Just My Imagination (live from Beacon Theatre) - The Rolling Stones

And warm weather always makes me want to listen to Crosby, Stills, and Nash. And Bob Dylan too.

Remember

"All art requires courage." Anne Tucker

Now what?

For the first time in my life, I don't know.

Taking the...

Plunge
linoblock prints, handcolored vintage photograph, and solar photographic print with hand-stitching
6.25 x 8.5"

copyright Kate Castelli 2008

Spiral-bound

A new sketchbook is daunting and blank and white. It is like clean sheets or shiny new sneakers. It feels like a stranger to me. It must be broken in, lived with, carried. It is only about a third of the way through that I find my groove. I am also superstitious about drawing on the first page- I leave it blank.

I don't just draw or paint in my sketchbook, it is not merely a visual exercise of skill or technique. My sketchbooks are visual narratives of my current state of mind, obsessions, and interests. They are also an integral part of my artistic process

I draw, print, paint, write, cut, rip, tear, layer, paste, sew, observe, record, collect, gather, change, alter, examine, but most importantly I begin.


























My current sketchbook (as well as the previous three) are from Michael Rogers Press. They are custom 7x10" spiral-bound with heavyweight paper and kraft paper covers. They can take a beating in my satchel, and the paper holds up to my layering process and many types of wet and dry media. This particular book is available locally at Bob Slate in Cambridge, MA.

This is the 2nd page of the new book.
Keef (ballpoint pen and gouache)
copyright Kate Castelli 2008.

Poor Anne

Off With Her Head
Parker Quink, bleach, watercolor, and acrylic on graph paper with vintage anatomy illustrations and hand-stitching.
9.5 x 14.5 "

The second of Henry VIII many wives and the first to meet an unfortunate end. Her gift to history was her daughter Elizabeth I. And she was the vivacious catalyst for Henry's (and thus England's) break with the Catholic Church. In many ways she begat the Church of England and one of the country's greatest monarchs. She paid for it with her head.

This is the most labor intensive hand-stitching I've done on any piece, despite it being a simple grid.

copyright Kate Castelli 2008

A desire to be elsewhere

Borough Market.
London.
A Friday morning.
To be there and not here.


*Photo notes: this shot was taken with a Voigtlander Bessa-R rangefinder outfitted with a Color-Skopar 35mm f2.5 MC lens and Ilford XP2 film. Taken on 14 March 2008 and of course COPYRIGHT Kate Castelli 2008.