During the month of March, artists in the Open Sketchbook mentoring program explored minimalist and maximalist approaches with our Everything's Related: More or Less theme. We looked at the work of Contemporary and Outsider artists who developed their paintings and sculptures using more-is-more or less-is-more processes.

During the month of February, artists in the Open Sketchbook mentorship program created new work under the subject Everything's Related and our monthly theme Auras and Enigmas. Weekly projects were based on glowing light patterns, unusual objects and odd occurrences. Works by Morris Graves, Gertrude Abercrombie and Yayoi Kusama were studied for their mystical, surreal and otherworldly qualities. Artists worked with wet watercolor washes, collage, layering and mixed media. 

To kick off the new year, artists in the Open Sketchbook mentorship program developed new work under the subject Everything's Related and monthly theme This and That. Weekly projects were based on a pair of ideas with the This sketchbook drawings generating the That artworks formed outside the sketchbook on a variety of surfaces including envelopes, cardboard, assorted papers and synthetic grounds.

Beginning in September 2025, artists in the Open Sketchbook mentorship program have been working with our new Everything's Related theme. Each month we explore a pair of ideas on two facing sketchbook pages. By working with prompts in a side-by-side format, artists are able to develop ideas in relationship to one another, pushing and pulling material processes in direct response to complementary images both emergent and informative. 

Over the past few months, we have been working with a variety of themes and prompts related to the spirit of summer fun. During the month of June we explored the subject of Expansion as a way to open up new pathways in projects currently underway.

I'm pretty sure every place has a soul. It’s as if the convergence of events, people and things when gathered together and embedded in a particular location over time embody a distinctive psycho-geography. This presence of place, this essence of biophilia, is what I experience in profound measure when exploring the restored Dixon Prairie just north of Chicago.

While visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden in March of 2024, I was struck by a particular area of the Dixon Prairie -- a re-creation of the wild prairies that covered the state of Illinois prior to 1900. Drawn to this type of landscape, it was disconcerting to learn that of the over 21 million acres of prairie that once covered the state, today only 0.01 percent remain. The Dixon Prairie project represents several different prairie types including grasslands, native plants, savannas, and wetlands. Although each is lively and remarkable throughout the seasons, it was the wetlands that caught my eye that day.