For a very long time, I was obsessed with beautiful little notebooks and sketchbooks—Moleskins, Field Guides, Composition Books, you name it. The potential of an empty book is enormously satisfying. It sits waiting to be filled with art, ideas, to-do lists, poetry, particular projects, or anything else you can come up with. And there are some fantastic sketchbooks out there in the world—from Dina Brodsky to Basquiat to Dan Mills. But what I found was, faced with ideas in every direction, I would more often than not start a notebook, change my interest after a few pages or become frustrated at its direction, and then never return to the notebook. So I had stacks and stacks of little books that were barely begun. (I’m not saying I didn’t finish any, it was just rare.) It was almost comical in that I would later return to the journal, rip the first few pages out, use it the same way, then return months later and rip those pages out, until I had notebooks with lovely covers and very few pages. Somewhere along the way, I realized that sketchbooks and to-do lists are perfect and beautiful for some people, but I was not one of those people. So now I simply admire them from afar and regift all the beautiful little tomes that people generously give me. Different things work for different people, and I am very happy now collecting reproductions of other peoples’ notebooks that provide insight, beauty, and a directness perhaps not found in any other medium. And then I turn back to my loose leaf paper and, as Sol Lewitt urged, get to doing.

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Paint by Number: The How-To Craze that Swept the Nation

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: CORWIN LEVI

Corwin is a visual artist working in design, illustration, bookmaking, curating, and writing. As an artist, he has attended over twenty artist residencies. He has also have lived in eighteen cities across twelve states. Along with Michelle Aldredge, he co-created Mirror Mirrored: An Artists’ Edition of 25 Grimms’ Tales. He is currently remixing vintage game boards and making a book from illustrations of Alice in Wonderland.