An apple...

and other monuments

Sometimes rethinking a cliche is a starting point for a sketch. In this case the cliche “an apple for the teacher”. Here's what I ended up with:

Here's where I began drawing - looking at the apple and knife before cutting up the apple for breakfast:

Unlike many of my sketchbook pages the page above was created in one sketch session while the coffee brewed. I used my fountain pen. (My handwritten words relate to instruction and the ability to learn.)

Creating “monuments” in my sketchbook is related to cliches I think. If you think of the “commonplace” sense of the definition of the word cliche. Large public sculptures, fountains and the like often become common points of geographical reference. That's not necessarily a bad thing. You say “Eiffel Tower” I reply “Paris, France” and just like that we share a reference in common. We understand each other.

So it amuses me to make monuments in my sketchbook out of ordinary things we’d all recognize. (And yes, I liked Claus Oldenburg’s work too)

Sometimes I think of books and the act of reading as similar to viewing a monument - a book is a monument of a thought. To read is to inhabit a public sculpture garden of your own selection.

I did a whole sketchbook on the topic of reading… a monument to the love of books. (Recently I read this article about strategies to get back to reading books: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/07/11/reading-slump-help/)

You can preview my entire book “Another Sketchbook” here https://www.blurb.com/b/10134263-another-sketchbook-by-clancy

Here's a few of my favorite pages:

I hope your weekend is both fruitful and monumental in the most relaxing ways.