Sketchbook Project at SPACE Gallery

Hooray! The Sketchbook Project was back in town, at SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine.
We were so eager to hold our own sketchbook once again, like a long lost friend.

The Milan-based collective Carnovsky provided a stunning backdrop, with a wallpaper display titled RGB, which paired well with my fresh Tattly tattoo.

We had our eyes peeled for all things sketchy, and just stare at this Caronvsky bit long enough to be hypnotized: you....WILL....sketch...

 

It had no effect on this viewer.

 Every book checked out gets multiple views though, with viewers sharing.

 This one was a favorite with our crowd, filed under the theme Time Travel.

I fell in love with this sketchbook by Rachel Sofian, filled with graceful graphite drawings of animals collaged into the pages. Who can resist this sloth?

Given the heat, I searched by theme for something else cool: It's Winter Where You Are, and found a lovely book by Rhonda Anderson. This snowy owl charmed me.

In fact, I found another owl but sadly did not write down the artist.

Here's the owl that begins my treehouse book:

Thanks to Prismacolor, there was a drawing table where anyone could send off a quick sketch to a random destination. Drew my compadre, the curious Kirsten.

 

We left quite satiated, but returned for another round a day later, to reunite one last time with our sketchbooks. We met one of the founders of the project, Steven Peterman and his wife, Sara. It's come a long way since 2006.

By the way, Happy 10 Year Birthday to SPACE!!!

You can see Marty's book here, and Daisy's here. Mine is apparently not digitized into the library yet.

Our cohort in sketching, Judy Labrasca, stopped in to admire our books as well.

 

We found even more to like. 

Incredibly fresh line work in this book by Bernadette Moke. Positively electric.

 

I searched Italy and found this elegance by Flavia Dell 'Anna.

You really can go around the world, turning pages.

These two were fun.

On the right, a Heroes and Villains by Min Hyung with line dissolving into abstraction.

The time flies by when you're entranced in a drawn world. It was time for the staff to close up the library, so what else could we do?

Yup, sign up for the 2013, with free sleeping bags for our little treasures yet to be drawn!