Brooklyn Art Library Art Book: “Why Did the Owl Make Everyone Laugh?”
“Why Did the Owl Make Everyone Laugh?” Published by the Art House Coop/Brooklyn Art Library.
As I usually do when I’m working on projects, I was combing through what I call “my creative archives” that span digital copies of all my work from 2007 to current. I happened to stumble upon a few published artworks and I wanted to share them. Being published in an art book was such a cool opportunity and, since we’re coming up on the 10-year anniversary I thought it would be fitting to share it all with you.
“Why Did the Owl Make Everyone Laugh?” is the one and only art book that was published by Art House Co-op, which is also known as the Brooklyn Art Library in New York City. They do great work, giving artists the opportunity to create and build a physical library to store such works. Check them out here if you’re interested in learning more about their mission.
The story begins with a good and supportive friend. She hit me up one day randomly and forwarded me an announcement that the Brooklyn Art Library was looking for artists to submit work and recommended (very strongly) that I get in touch. I was pretty skeptical for a number of reasons. Thankfully, I took her advice and applied. To my surprise, this turned into one of the coolest things to happen in my art career, all from encouragement from a friend.
Little did I know at the time the Brooklyn Art Library was specifically looking for artists to feature in their art book dubbed “Why Did the Owl Make Everyone Laugh?” The catch though was you had to submit a sketchbook that they provided, if accepted, you would have been published in the book. Not only that but, your sketchbook would be archived and digitally preserved, your sketchbook would “tour” around the United States at these little pop-up art exhibitions.
I was so excited to get to work on this but, the trouble for me was that I exclusively worked on canvas, wood, and plastics, not paper, not in sketchbooks. Especially, tiny 5x7’’ ones. I think that was one of the many blessings that came out of this. It asked me to switch up my format and challenge myself creatively.
Needless to say, with all those possibilities on the line I finished my sketchbook as quickly as I could, submitted it in mid-July, and a few pieces were published in December of 2012 and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, I can’t really elaborate on these Untitled pieces that were published. I had to fill probably 20 pages of this sketchbook so, I was focused on what colors appealed to me at the time and I think it’s safe to say the bright yellows, reds, and blues alludes to my excitement for this opportunity and all that could come from it later.
“Art House Co-op is an independent Brooklyn-based company that organizes global, collaborative art projects. Our flagship endeavor is the Sketchbook Project: an evolving library featuring more than 12,000 artists' sketchbooks from 100 countries and counting. We also operate the Brooklyn Art Library and Brooklyn Archives, our storefront spaces in the heart of Williamsburg.”
