I am always surprised by the contrast between the number of e-mails I receive weekly about Sketchtravel and the lack of comments on this blog. It seems that people are always afraid to share their point of view.
It's obvious we can't share a sketchbook between international artists without getting some debates, so don't be shy, we are very open-minded.
Michaël L. (who wants to stay anonymous) asks me why drawings done by the artists involved in Sketchtravel are not so "politically involved".
Michael said : "How a Sketchbook who travels the world for about 3 years only contains imaginary visions or just entertaining subjects ?" Well, my answer is (probably) because first, Artists invited are not cartoonists. They don't militate through their art. They might prefer offering something funny, special, a piece of their imaginary appealing world . Feel free to ask to them personaly on their blog ;)
So what ? is their Art less interesting because they don't generally report a routine (Benoit Lepennec, Enrico casarosa and Robert Valley did) and prefer to show you other worlds or entertaining scenes ? Politically speaking, Is sharing a reel sketchbook all around the world not an encouraging act ?
But Don't get wrong, we love cartoonists and if you follow the adventure of this lucky sketchbook you could see soon a cartoonist in Sketchtravel, who knows. We keep some secrets to surprise you on the way.
Waiting for it, because we love federating and promoting collateral creative initiative we invit you to visit : http://www.cartoonbank.com (official website for the "New-Yorker's" archives) or http://www.cartooningforpeace.org/ (Conceived by the French cartoonist Plantu, ‘Cartooning for Peace’ is an initiative born on October 16, 2006 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Twelve of the most renowned political cartoonists from all over the world participated in a two-day conference to help us ‘Unlearn intolerance’. The conference was accompanied by an exhibition.)
By the way, the Sketchbook is RED but we are not "communists", by choosing the RED color we feel more in This spirit.
Sketchtravel is a unique international charity art project. This red sketchbook was passed from one artist's hand to another like an Olympic torch in an artistic relay through 12 countries over 4 and half years. Now the book is complete and it will be auctioned on Oct 17th 2011 to benefit the non profit Room to Read
