What do I do with piles of sketches? In books, in folders, laying loose. When I moved to Bellefonte six years ago, I cleared out what I thought was most of it, but I keep turning up more. flickr does an interesting job of aggregating the stuff- sizing the images I uploaded so they fit in even rows. The elm tree looks the smallest here in this screen grab from flickr. It is the largest illustration of the bunch: maybe eight inches tall. The pepsi truck is a small doodle. For me, though, the arbitrary size doesn’t matter. The cluster of images is satisfying and I didn’t have to code each one. I think that’s the answer I need- easy enough, an adequate reminder (remember Onion Head?), and I can dump all the paper.
I’ve been struggling with the implications of this. I’ve already decided to work for me, so images serve a personal purpose. Life notes, maybe? I just found a pile of matted images- some pencil wash and some pen and ink. They’re all far too precious in their mats and need to be stripped bare.
.
What about an old fashioned Portfolio, so can leaf through it, or is that too much work… and take up too much space?
Friends at the restaurant actually gave me one as a parting gift! Having a dedicated space helped for years, but it was still a storage problem. And it made the stuff a little too precious. That portfolio was part of what left during the last purge.