Erika Allison's Artastic Blog

Some artists swear by the sketchbook. They maintain it’s important to keep one, to be constantly sketching, and wouldn’t go anywhere without it. That’s not me. I’m not much of a sketcher. I never have been. I love to draw…and I’m decent at drawing. I just don’t have much use for sketching, if that makes any sense.

I can remember my freshman year in college. We were supposed to keep a sketchbook for Drawing 101. The night before it was due to be turned in I was in my dorm room scrambling to fill it up. I did numerous drawings of my left hand, feet, tennis shoes, loafers, whatever I could find to draw at the last minute. I wonder if the prof could figure that out? Surely, I wasn’t the only last-minute student!

Recently, I came across my “current” sketchbook in my studio. I opened it and was somewhat appalled to find that my first entry was dated 2002! See? I told you…not much of a sketcher. And, there’s still plenty of room left. I leafed through the whole sketchbook, curious to see what I’d sketched a few times over the years. While I didn’t have sketches of paintings-to-be, I DID have lots of IDEAS jotted down (with a few hastily scratched in sketches to help me remember how the ideas were to work). I was actually amazed at all the ideas I’d had – and had sense enough to jot down lest I’d forget. Some ideas I’ve already implemented, and are the backbone of my current method of working. Others are still waiting for me to try.

I’m glad I decided to thumb through the sketchbook. It reminded me that I come up with lots of creative ideas. And, it reminded me that I should be TRYING some of these ideas. It’s always good to inject new ideas and new methods into one’s work. An artist shouldn’t get too comfortable with one way of working…which reminds me of a good Picasso quote: “Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.”

I’m sure I still won’t keep a sketchbook the way many artists do. But, mine is every bit as valuable – to me, anyway!

I found this amazing video about Theo Jansen’s kinetic art that I’d like to share with you. Enjoy!

Call For Entries!

The Contemporary Arts Center of Las Vegas, a non-profit arts organization, is calling for submissions to their 21^st Annual Juried Show.

“This year marks the first national call for entries to the juried exhibition, as we broaden the scope of the work and support our mission to connect with fellow artists within and beyond our own community.”

For the first time they will be accepting digital entries in order accommodate a larger spectrum of entries and to “encourage trans-disciplinary artists to expand their potential entries for jury consideration”.

If you are interested in submitting, visit their members’ site events page for guidelines and entry forms at http://cac.wildapricot.org

According to their site & flyer, the ‘Best of Show’ award is $1500, with second and third place prizes of $750 and $500, respectively.

The deadline for digital submissions is March 1st, 2010!

Contact information for the CAC is listed below: