Mining My Sketchbooks

A few years ago I went to an artist talk at Penland and I heard something that has stayed with me. The details are hazy, including the identity of the artist himself, but I do remember he was a photographer and he was talking about things he tells his students. He said something about "mining your sketchbook," basically looking through old sketchbooks for thoughts and ideas for new work. I have a big stack of sketchbooks and I look through them occasionally to do just this. There are so many ideas in them, ideas I will never get to, especially if I don't remind myself. I've been writing about my new work today and as I sat here I remembered a list I wrote in 2010 that includes all of my moves in the US. I found the list and will use it somehow in my new work. It's interesting to be reminded where and when I lived somewhere…and this is helpful information when making work about "home."

Now if I could just find that line about mining your sketchbooks... I know it's in one of these!

Thanks for reading.