View Katie donovan's 2016 submission to the sketchbook project here. 

 

Sketchbook Practice 

I am highly attracted to pattern and the things my brain isn't telling me, but definitely knows.

The author Rebecca Solnit has discussed the way in which western culture is preoccupied with stories - we romanticize tales and the act of storytelling. But stories can be just as debilitating as they are life-giving. At times, we live by stories that bind us more than liberate us. In terms of visual language, we tend to associate pattern with beauty and stability - an intentional, often gorgeous repetition that we can depend on. But in language, pattern has strong negative and positive connotations. A pattern of abuse, a pattern of maturity. In my sketchbook work I approach and play with the potential versatility pattern can have in visual language.

Sketchbooks have always been a place for me to make free association drawings and allow my mind to communicate concepts, preoccupations, and obsessions that I wasn't previously aware I had or perhaps secretly had hesitations about willfully communicating. Working in a free associative state is like dreaming - your mind has less inhibitions and begins to free style. Always having a sketchbook going is a necessity for my process as an artist - this free styling and ability to explore pattern often work as road maps and sparks for larger works, but I am adamant about the sketchbook's autonomy as well. It is more than a map. It is a finished work in and of itself.