sketchbook

I’ve been drawing since toddlerhood, drawing on the right pages of composition notebooks until I got to the end, then going back and drawing on all the left pages. My sketchbook became a comfort object because I always had it with me, in every situation. It was a hybrid outlet for self-expression, a journal, and a scrapbook. I don’t just draw in it; I tape in polaroids, zines, stickers, receipts, and other oddities I find day by day. I relate to it in that it’s essentially me, and the easiest way for me to show people what kind of person I am. The art and comics in there are works of fiction, but they’re intertwined with my own feelings and personal experiences.

I’ve only recently started archiving my sketchbooks, but I’ve found it’s been really helpful to me because it helps track my growth as an artist. It’s easy to become discouraged with my art when I’m feeling unmotivated, but going through my old sketchbooks reminds me how much I’ve accomplished.

I’m not very good at having conversations with people. Worse, the conservations I do have tend to drift out of memory as quickly as they come. Since I’ve started making friends at MCAD, I’ve found that having my sketchbook is an easy way to troubleshoot this problem. My sketchbook is a makeshift portfolio, but it also just represents me as a person: my interests, my feelings, what my favorite snacks are, etc. I’ve found exchanging sketchbooks with my friends has taught me more about them than they could, whether they know it or not.