Saturday

Sketchbooks!

I was thrilled to find my sketchbook (middle spread) on the promo for The Sketchbook Project from ArtHouse Co-Op. The spread they featured is from the 2nd sketchbook I did for them, entitled "The Aftermath Of..."

My sketchbook entitled "Lines and Grids" will be among those on tour throughout the USA in early 2011.

The Sketchbook Project is a great opportunity (what's not to love about a blank Moleskin and you very own library card?) Click on the promo above for more info!

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

Union Oyster House

My apologies for the lack of posts/new work lately. Summer has been a little chaotic to say the least.

I'm teaching 3 courses this summer at the Art Institute of Boston. And I'm getting together my portfolio for grad school.

I took one of my classes to the Rose Kennedy Greenway, an urban greenspace nestled between the North End and Government Center/Haymarket. It is one of my favorite places in Boston.

Union Oyster House
page from the new Moleskin sketchbook for the Arthouse Co-op Sketchbook Project Vol. 4. (8.25 x 5")

copyright Kate Castelli 2009

The Sketchbook Project

A sea of sketchbooks (including mine, top) at Laconia Gallery, Boston.

The best part of the opening last night was that the work wasn't on the walls, it was in your hands.

The sketchbooks were scattered on tables and bookshelves. You were encouraged to dive in, grab books, turn pages, read, look. People crowded around the tables and in corners. Some grabbed stacks, others choose more carefully. Books were handed around, exchanged, shared.

You never knew what you would find between the covers.

Done

I finally finished my little Moleskin for the Art House Sketchbook Project. I've never had to keep a sketchbook with a deadline.

I am always a little bit sad when I am finished with a sketchbook. They become companions after a while, especially this one. It got tossed in every bag or back pocket these last couple of months.

But now it's off on tour and I won't get to see it again until March 6th when it makes a stop at Laconia Gallery in Boston.

Bon Voyage!

Places to see

When I was little I wrote down a list of 10 places to see before I die. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have crossed off 3 of those places by the time I was 21-- London, Paris, and Australia. Part of me wants to edit or change the list, but there is something a little sacred about the journeys I dreamt of taking when I was small.

I've been to places not on the list, I will be to many more. But the list remains.

I love to travel and to wander. It is not restlessness, but the desire to see and feel and experience. And be reminded of my sincerely insignificant part of something much greater.

There is so much left to see.


From pages 26-27
Moleskin sketchbook
ink and bleach on paper with hand-stitching
3.5 x 5.5"

copyright Kate Castelli 2009

Something better beginning

I'm feeling a certain kinship with the Dadaists lately. They understood the absurdity and the beauty in this world.

Pages 22-23 (Begin)
from the Moleskin sketchbook
photograph, ephemera, and gouache with handstitching.
3.5 x 7" opened

copyright Kate Castelli 2009

Run

Pages VII and IX (Run)
enamel on paper with my regards to Eadweard Muybridge
7 x 5.5 " opened


copyright Kate Castelli 2008

For Tom

Page V (for Tom)
from the Moleskin sketchbook
ink, china marker, and type on graph paper
3.5 x 5.5 "

copyright Kate Castelli 2008

Moleskin

We had written our history without leaving room to edit.


Page II and III
first spread from the Moleskin sketchbook which arrived in the post on Monday for the Sketchbook Project Volume III
7 x 5.5" opened

copyright Kate Castelli 2008