The Aftermath of...

The Aftermath of...
(Pages 4-5)
ephemera, photocopy and ink on graph paper
8.125 x 10" opened


Since the sketchbooks are being archived in a library of sorts, each came with a theme (for organizational purposes I suppose.)

Mine was The Aftermath of...

I didn't follow it per say, but as I was developing the book several cohesive threads emerged:

1. Drawing a day-- I incorporated line drawings into the book by photocopying them onto graph paper and playing with them some more. Each spread has a line drawing and a complimentary page. I was looking at the relationship between the two pages (something I have been doing in my sketchbook for a while).

2. Blue-- An unintentional color palette emerged of blue and its compliment, orange.

3. Flight-- Turning your eyes upwards-- birds, aeroplanes, the sky, etc.

4. Circles-- I don't know, they just seem to show up a lot in the compositions.

*See the complete book here.




The Aftermath of...
(Pages 12-13)
photocopy, and ink wash on graph paper
8.125 x 10" opened

copyright Kate Castelli 2009

On procrastination...

The Sketchbook Project Vol. 4 sent my sketchbook in July. I didn't touch it until the beginning of December.

Realizing I couldn't fill an entire sketchbook in less than a month, I decided to be clever... I cut the binding at the spine and removed all the pages so I had only the cover. Then I made a 16-page artists' book using a traditional pamphlet design and sewed it back into the cover. Voila!

Most of the process involved me staring at bits of ephemera, making a huge mess in the studio, photocopying, and listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix.

The Aftermath of...
(Pages 14-15)
monotype, photocopy and ink wash on graph paper
8.125 x 10" opened
copyright Kate Castelli 2009

Shortest day of the year.

I can see you.

I can See You
watercolor, block-printing, and photocopy on graph paper
5.125 x 8.25"
copyright Kate Castelli 2009

Isolated Moments

Shadows become temporal lines. And temporal lines endure with the click of a shutter. And I came across this photograph and remembered all the reasons why I love Alexander Calder.

photograph by Gjon Mili, 1968, from the Life archives

Playing with time

Happy Birthday to Keith Richards. As he says at every concert, "It's good to be here, it's good to be anywhere."

So play some Rolling Stones today ("You've Got the Silver" from Let it Bleed is my favorite Keith track) and toast the man who will probably outlive us all.

(the quote illustrated above is from the man himself, and found in What Would Keith Richards Do?)

On violet

And violet is the last color in the rainbow spectrum, symbolizing both the end of the known and the beginning of the unknown.
(Victoria Findlay)

It is cold. I meet a three-legged puppy today, and Harvard Square was alive with the sound of wind-chimes this afternoon. Life has been hectic, per usual. Mucking around to no avail in the studio, although I am finishing my sketchbook for the Art House Coop Sketchbook library.

I forgot I had a Flickr account. So needless to say I have recently updated it. Mostly with work from the Drawing a Day project and some other line work. It will be updated more frequently. Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/katecastelli/