2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks -- Week 6

I've gotten into a bit of a rhythm for working on this sketchbook. Because we're taking turns creating our pages, after I finish a page I don't need to have another page finished for two weeks. I spend a lot of time thinking and planning before I actually make anything. I usually play around with many different ideas, often just in my head, imagining different techniques, materials and designs. As the deadline approaches (read: on the day my photos are due to Dana) I dive in and make my page.

This week I settled on using fabric to mimic Dana's stripes. I chose pieces from my fabric scrap drawer and cut them with my rotary cutter as if I were creating pieces for a quilt. I frayed some of the edges to further mimic her brushstrokes.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

The planning and cutting stage of making a quilt is probably my favorite. I'll often mock up my design on paper with colored pencils or paint before I begin and so this week's pages have that sort of feel for me. It also reminds me of the notebook I used to keep in my purse with fabric and paint swatches for matching colors for projects.

I'm not sure how artful it is, but it was really fun to do.

Don't forget to stop by Dana's blog for her take on this week's pages.

About the project:

2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks is a collaboration between artists Dana Barbieri and Anne Butera. Dana and Anne met in an online painting class. Although they have never met in person, they have become friends through regular visits to each others' blogs. It was through this connection that this project began. Wanting to move from friendship to collaboration, each spent two months filling one half of a sketchbook before mailing it off to the other. Dana worked on the lefthand pages and Anne on the right. Each will be responding to the other's work on the adjacent sketchbook pages over the coming year. Watch weekly as they reveal another page of their story.

About the artists:

Dana is an artist and crafter living in the foothills of the Catskill mountains two hours north of New York City with her husband, two children and little kitty. She is passionate about painting, knitting, crochet, color, pattern and design.

Anne is an artist, writer and crafter who finds inspiration and joy in the beauty of her garden and the magic of nature. Dissatisfied with and disheartened by the pace and lifestyle of the city, she and her husband (with their two rescued greyhounds and an aging Siamese) relocated to a small town in the beautiful Driftless region in southwest Wisconsin with the goal of living a slower, simpler, more intentional life.