For a fan, seeing any object created by his idol with his own hands becomes almost a fetish.

Seeing the pages of the notebook of the Swedish musician and singer Jay Jay Johanson leads us to imagine that, on the pages of that notebook, there is the germ of the melancholic letters we listen through his suggestive voice.

A dull sewed notebook of white pages and black covers with simple and a bit messy black notes.

Whiskey, Tatoo, Poison or the most recent Long Term Physical Are Not Yet Known, are the suggestive titles of his albums. Words that show us the universe of a cult singer.

I am always looking for an open-air spot to sit and draw or write.

One of my favourite spots is the garden of the Sabatini building of the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.

When it’s summer and sunny, I sit on one of its benches to enjoy the sunlight and I do sketches of the people around the world who, with light clothes because of the heat, are sitting there to rest after enjoying the artworks of the museum.

When autumn comes and the weather gets colder but there are still sunlight rays that shyly lean through the trees, I do sketches of the buildings, the sculptures or of a brave visitor that appears well wrapped-up to observe what happens outdoors.

All this always with Calder taking care of me.

Sometimes the envelope that wraps a gift takes the shape of the gift itself and when seeing it, you already know what there’s inside. You know that it’s a book, a lamp or a bottle of wine.

Other times you can’t even imagine what’s under the wrapping and you get a great surprise. A wrapped box may keep a ring, a dress or that thing you always wished.

Sometimes gifts only serve for one thing. A hair clipper, for example, can only be used to have your hair cut or a hat, only to cover your head and protect you from cold or heat.

Other times gifts become an infinite world of things. A notebook, for example, can be a diary, a manuscript of a novel, a school report, an appointment book, a sketchbook, an artist’s unique work…

A notebook is much more than a notebook.

Sometimes I think so many things at the same time that my head fills up with letters and words. To be able to put my ideas in order I hang them and once organized, I write them in my notebook and when reading them, I understand myself better.

P.S.: Do not forget to make your ideas clear before leaving them on the paper of your notebook.

Paimo Chair Sketch, Alvar aalto Design 

Paimo Chair, Alvar Aalto Design

Stool 60, Alvar Aalto Design

A chair or any other object is always first a sketch made on a blank sheet. The idea of a designer.

Alvar Aalto, the Finnish architect and designer is not an exception. His ideas were first naive sketches before being a building, a stool or fabric.

But Aalto was not satisfied with designing a space to live or an object to sit on, but he wanted to incorporate the design into people’s lives.

Wood was one the materials he used to reach it. Its delicacy, its warmth to the touch and its closeness to nature, in front of the rationality of materials like steel and concrete were added values for the human being.

Alvar Aalto designed wooden buildings, stackable furniture to solve the room problems, hand-painted textiles and glass pieces.

A faithful representative of the Finnish Design whose foundations were created on the 50s and 60s of the 20th century and continue at the peak today. Adapted to the new technologies, but keeping their profound environmental awareness.

I have never written that thing of: “Dear diary…”, but I have always liked lying words down on the paper that I have never wanted to say to anyone, just for me.

A kind of emotional therapy where letters emerge, like yells that leave their print on the sheets of my notebook or like swearwords which, just like comic speech bubbles with visual metaphors, can make people fear.

Sometimes with big letters, when I am sure of what I want to write, or very small, almost unreadable, when not even I dare to read them.

My notebook is my confident, a container of secrets I keep inside of me.

What about you? Do you write what you feel?

The Main Street Bozeman sketchbook spread #5

The Main Street Bozeman sketchbook  spread #1

The Main Street Bozeman sketchbook spread #2 

Painting: Chris with Arms Folded  oil on panel  29″x29″  2009

Painting: Studio Self Portrait  oil on panel  7.5″x9″  2007

Paul Heaston is a painter, drawer, photographer, musician, teacher and he draws compulsively in his sketchbooks.

His paintings show us coloured realistic portraits where you can identify with the pose and the look of the person portrayed.

His drawings, in black and white or coloured, immortalize street scenes, architecture, cars or portraits of his friends.

In the project Main Street Bozeman Project, Paul drew each building in the main street of the city of Bozeman in Montana, where he lives, between Grand and Rouse streets.

Sure traces and a great close detail of 67 buildings, 109 cars and motorcycles, hundreds of windows and bricks in black ink on the pale yellow pages of his sketchbooks. Always in situ sitting in a bank, a portable chair or simply standing up under the snow, the rain or the stifling heat.

The project is inspired by the work of the artists Ed Ruscha and Mateo Pericoli and he made it between September 2008 and May 2009.

Paul Heaston takes part in the Urban Sketchers and the Sketchcrawl of the city of Bozeman.

Photo: Pedro Arnay

Inspiration can come wherever. At the underground in your way to work, walking quickly along the streets of the city or taking a hot shower before going to bed.

But sometimes, looking for a special place to get your ideas out or simply reaching inspiration with what surrounds you is much more stimulating.

When the gold of autumn colours the leaves of the trees, when you can hear the faraway sound of the birds starting their way of emigration or when the smell of the wet ground fills it all, looking for a hidden spot in a park of the city may help you write a poem, create a melody or simply paint in watercolours the blank pages of a notebook.

The park El Capricho (The Caprice), in the North-West of Madrid, is a good choice where for sure inspiration does not pass by.

Photo: Pedro Arnay

Calixto Bieito is one of the most international Spanish scene directors. He is also artistic director in the Romea Theatre in Barcelona, city where he emigrated at the age of 15 and where he still lives.

Staging in the Stuttgart opera, Barcelona’s Liceo, Real Theatre of Madrid, Frankfurt Opera, Oslo National Theatre for operas like Wozzeck, Madam Butterfly or Carmen and theatre works like King Lear, The House of Bernarda Alba, Don Carlos or Peer Gynt back this year’s European Culture Award granted by the Swiss Foundation Pro Europe and that recognizes his career devoted to innovate and create cultural trends around the world.

Equally criticized and applauded, Bieito’s controversial and transgressor staging don’t leave anyone indifferent, always using his two recurrent matters: freedom of thought and fight against intolerance.

Calixto Bieito is never away from this red notebook where he writes down in English the ideas for his new projects.

Paper Design Artoz

Paper is not always a blank sheet; it is sometimes printed with some beautiful designs.

Wallpaper  is that decorative paper used to cover inner walls. It comes from China and Japan and it is used from the 16th century as a cheap substitute for tapestry, fabric, leather and wooden panels.

The first known mill to make painted paper was settled in England, 1746.

Painted papers found their top popularity from 1840, when industrialization caused prices decrease.

The English invent of printing with cylinder engraving and paper rolls made increase the production of painted paper in the 19th century.

After the Second World War new printing procedures were discovered and from then on, washable painted papers, cut and ready to be put became a very common element in inside decoration.

In second thought, before being painted paper with beautiful designs, it was first a blank sheet that an artist filled with ideas.

Enrico Casarosa’s sketches from his first Sketchcrawl  

A few years ago, artist Enrico Casarosa had the idea of going out with his pencil and watercolours for a whole day around San Francisco, the city where he lives, and draw in his sketchbook everything surrounding him.

After walking and drawing for the whole day and making 19 pages of the sketchbook, he finished more tired than he expected but it resulted funnier and more exciting than he had imagined.

Next step was meeting other artists to share ideas, drawings and different views of the city in a drawing marathon, for a whole day, which he called Sketchcrawl.

The third step was making it an event around the word and making a simultaneous marathon in different cities (more than 90). Hundreds of artists drawing at the same time and, thanks to the net, sharing results in an online forum.

There have already been 23 Sketchcrawl around the world. When is the next one? Visit its web site and join it to make this simultaneous drawing marathon bigger and bigger.

Museu de Arte Contemporanea, Rio de janeiro (Brasil)
Photo: Michel Moch

The notebook of architect Oscar Niemeyer (Rio de Janeiro 1907) is great, big in size and brilliant in ideas.

Niemeyer is the creator of the project for the city of Brasilia, along with the land planner Julio Costa, and for the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre in Aviles (Asturias), now under construction, and for other 455 constructions dispersed around the world.

The Brazilian architect revolutionized architecture creating an alternative language that started from the principle that the shortest distance between two points was the curve and not the straight line and he is also a pioneer in the exploration of constructive and aesthetic possibilities of reinforced concrete.

For his projects, Niemeyer firstly makes strokes and drawings based on his ideas and then he writes texts to argue them. When having the ideas clear on the paper he develops the building.

In the exhibition “Oscar Niemeyer” at the Fundación Telefonica in Madrid, you can see scale models, pictures, a sofa, a sculpture, projections and the drawings and sketches, fruit of his ideas in the huge sheets of his notebook. You have until November 22nd.

What would the pure blank pages of a notebook be like without the ink? Written words, simple or elaborated drawings, or simply an ink spot bring the blank universe of a notebook’s pages to life.

Tinta China or India ink is the generic name a kind of ink gets, for drawings or writing, with watery base and used from ancient times.

The most ancient ones were formed by smoke black, a pigment extracted from charcoal that was mixed up with a gum (borax or gum arabic) to form some little bars, which were pressed and left to dry. To make it turn liquid, it was rubbed with a rough stone and mixed with water.

Some authors set its use in the 4th century BC in India (Sures Chandra Banerji) and other set it in China (Mark Gottsegen, Michael and Mary Woods) during the third millennium BC. This is why in English it is commonly called India ink and in Spanish, Chinese ink.

Whatever its origin is, ink gives the one who uses it a prime material to develop all their creativity on the blank pages of a notebook.

Lisa Boudreau, Brandon Collwes.
Photo by Anna Finke 

Merce Cunnigham  Photo: Google Images

Merce Cunningham was one of the most important and innovating choreographers of the contemporary dance in the 20th century.

His choreographies were abstract and based on the pure movement devoid of any emotional involvement.

He was surrounded by relevant musicians like John Cage and plastic artists like Robert Rauschenberg or Jasper Johns.

They gathered three elements in the same space and time: dance, music and decoration, but each one in an independent way.

When Cunningham started to make choreographies, in the 50s, there were no videos to register them and mounting them again years after.

To do so, choreographers had notation methods, like Laban’s or Beneth’s (also used nowadays), among others, that helped describe the ballets and establish a repertoire of steps to, this way, guarantee the choreographies continuity.

Although he didn’t really like doing it, Merce Cunningham also took notes in his notebooks. They were full of sketches, indications for the steps, instructions for the dance or simple lines for the direction of movements.

For Rune (1959), he made two handwritten notebooks of more than 40 pages with spatial directions and strokes dolls, which he did during a flight to Europe.

There is a book, Changes: Notes on Choreography, where you can see the complex diagrams he did of his choreographies.

2008 Poster

Illustration: D. Roudeau

Every two years, in the beautiful French city of Clermont-Ferrand, the Travel Sketchbook Biennial is held in Clermont-Ferrand (Biennale Carnet de Voyage de Clermont-Ferrand).

A meeting among enthusiasts of travelling and noting in the blank pages of their sketchbooks everything they see around them.

The Biennial lasts for three days, where the Travel Sketchbooks’ artists exhibit and sell their work sharing space with other artists and in direct contact with the visitors.

In such a Biennial you can see from alone notes to more elaborated watercolours, exotic portraits, far away landscapes and cosmopolitan cities. Coloured or in black and white. It all depends on the particular view of each artist.

If you are one of those who don’t leave their notebook at home whenever they travel or you simply like travel notebooks, don’t miss next edition of the Biennial, which will be held in November, 13th to 15th.

Moreover, if you want to take part, you can check how at its web site.

melting pot #2 - mai 2009

saint-pierre de rome / octobre 2008 

arc de triomf

Selfportrait

Lapin doodles his daily life in a notebook he always brings in his pocket. Faces, objects, sensations and moments fill the blank, lined or graph sheets of his notebooks.

French, graduated on Decorative Arts in Nantes, he dedicates to make covers and illustrations for important customers. Also, along with other illustrators, graphic designers and photographers, he founded the Pa-collective, a collective that publishes the interesting magazine pa.collective.

His blog, Les Calepins de Lapin (Lapin’s doodles), opens the pages of his life diaries. Pages full of traces, colours and short texts.

His travel notebooks offer you from panoramic watercolours of cities like Barcelona, Rome or Venice, to the multicoloured pages full of portraits, streets, flowers, objects, stickers, buildings… in the Vietnam, London or New York notebooks.

Lapin draws, he always draws and we like it a lot.

Rayos y Centellas is the original and appropriate title for the blog of the visual artist Juan Rayos.

We do like his captivating work. Juan makes his visual works in music festivals with DJ’s, for theatre plays or videoart in public spots or in galleries… but he also takes pictures and writes personal notebooks…

His pictures are full of stories that go beyond his framing. Images of cities (Berlin, Budapest, Beijing, Pingyao, Kolkata…) where he has been and places that have fascinated his personal look.

His notebooks have tridimentionality, body and texture, and we imagine aroma too. They are “fattened” with collages, reinterpreted others’ pictures, colour spots, drawings, own texts or by others’ and handwritten by himself…notebooks full of ideas, thoughts and commitment.

We are interested in everything he tells. Spend an afternoon enjoying his pictures or reading what he writes about himself or about others in his particular personal logbook.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Selfportrait, Vincent van Gogh

Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh cut himself an ear (although now someone may say the one who cut it was Gauguin). Van Gogh painted pictures with bright colours and lived in Etten, Neunen, Paris, Arles, Saint Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise.

He used to write letters to his brother Theo where he told him how he felt and what he thought. These were letters written on small sheets, which maybe he tore out of a notebook, and where he drew the sketches of what he wanted to paint.

Van Gogh had a room that himself painted and he painted sunflowers too and a starry night and a wheat field and he also painted himself.

There is a museum in Amsterdam where you can now see the painting of his room, and the sunflowers and the starry night and the wheat field and the painting of himself and the letters he used to write to his brother Theo on small sheets, maybe torn out of a notebook, and where he told him how he felt and what he thought and where he drew the sketches of what he wanted to paint…

Apparent static images but which tell stories beyond unfinished simple black traces, where imagination of the ones who see them fills out what is missing.

Fighters, faceless portraits, lonely spots, furniture, sex scenes, drawings captured on blue, yellow or pink sheets in a graph paper or on an old double-lined notebook.

Theo is from Brazil but lives in Madrid. His work can be seen in publications such as Fake Magazine or in art festivals like BAC. Moreover, in his web you can see his video installations or animations always with his recurrent topics.