It stars just by reading. Open up one of my Faulkner novels (will never lend one to you, too embarrassed) and you will see notes in the margins, pencil and pen underlining, an occasional doodle or silly commentary. These are some of the mining sketches i did during my residency in Elijay, Georgia, in 2018. Many of these became full fledged paintings, but something about the little miners is sometimes more successful.

This is generally the idea behind sketchbooks, i suppose. Taking ideas and compiling them and giving room to those things that keep nagging at you for one reason or another. This particular book-to-sketchbook thing was new to me, but surely not a new thing for many fellow makers.

I’ll be sharing a few of these, because Faulkner has been a huge force in my work over the past few months, mostly in this form. It’s led to a general loosening and a rooting, too.