>>MORE IMAGES

Pages from Collaborative Sketchbooks
Nancy Chalker-Tennant and Clarissa Thompson Sligh

In the summer of 1993, we explored the possibility of making art that would keep us supportive of each other in our creative process. We settled on the idea of collaborating through a series of drawings made in standard spiral bound 30 page books.
Our idea was to make a drawing each day for thirty days and then to mail our respective sketchbooks to each other in Rochester and New York City. During the second thirty days we drew on each other's drawings, thereby creating a second layer. Repeating the process, we drew again on clean pages in a new sketchbook. After filling four books with both our drawings, the collaboration came to an end during the winter of 1994.
Six years later, in the summer of 1999, we reviewed our collaborative sketchbooks together. There we some drawings we each could not remember having done, while others brought back memories from those times in our lives. Parts of several drawings we each claimed must have been done by the other. Another artist, who was sure she could tell who had done what, was wrong numerous times. Her response was a testament to the way we had somehow extended the boundaries of each other's work.
Choosing our favorite images, we added a third layer through the photocopying process. The drawings were again transformed.