I am taking part in an exhibition of artists books/ sketchbooks

Monday 28th Feb saw the start of Safety Helmets Must Be Worn, a group show by MEET. Have a look at the website:
www.artistsmeet.org



My contribution is 3 little sketchbooks described below for the catalogue


CODEX 1-3


Starting on January 1st 2010 I did one drawing a day, and continued every day for the whole year in 3 tiny sketchbooks. This was not conceived as an artwork. I am a potter so some drawings reflect my work. I decided to display the books pegged together to form a circle suggesting the turning of the year. (What a shame that there are 360 degrees but 365 days to go around the year.)


Tiny windows that can be peered through:


Looking/seeing/transcribing/isolating/defining/choosing/recording


Finding common ground and themes


Trying out: ideas/materials/mark-making methods/re-learning to draw


Diary of fragments of my year- some appropriate to the season/special days/location at the time


My things/artefacts/interests/my people/myself


Pots: mine/my collection/ideas for new pottery work






My background. I have a First in 3-D Design from Loughborough College of Art & Design, but for many years drawing has been merely of the thumbnail/back-of-fag-packet (not that I smoke) type to generate basic ideas from which to make my objects in three dimensions. I have made somewhere in the region of 90,000 pots over 30 years, and my work is still very much alive and evolving.


I see drawing as an engine-house for the generation of new ideas, so this was the first time that I had made a promise to myself to draw for it’s own sake, and to do it relentlessly every day, no matter how little time I had, or how important or trivial the subject depicted. It became a habit and a discipline. It was a process of taking stock, and finding out for myself what I am interested in, and how I am able to record it. As an example, I am so pleased I took time to draw fair likenesses of my mum and dad, both in their late 80’s now.

You can see a range of pictures on http://www.facebook.com/richbax and look in the photo albums for “Selections from my One Drawing A Day project last year. All done in 3 tiny sketchbooks”, “One drawing a day”, and “recent pages from my one drawing a day sketchbook”.