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.

During the month of September, artists focused on the concept of Extraction by selecting a specific area of an image made in the previous few months and developing a series from it. New works were constructed through multiple prompts that included working in a circular format, exploring new materials, methods, and surfaces, and infusing images with the spirit of contemporary artists of interest. The images below showcase these ongoing serial explorations.

During the month of December, we worked with the concept of emanations, a thing or issue that spreads out from a source, while viewing videos of natural energies, forms, and phenomena. These include Reindeer Cyclones, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, snowflake designs, ice crystal growing on glass and ice crystals freezing inside bubbles. Each of these subjects were explored on sketchbooks pages using a 5"x 5" square format and a wide range of drawing and painting materials.