Algonquin professor’s pandemic project delivers the “wonderful kindness” of art
Posted on Monday, July 6th, 2020
Algonquin Graphic Design professor Andrea Emery received a text message in November from a friend telling her to expect a gift in the mail. The message didn’t say what the gift was, only that it might inspire her.
“I saw this and immediately thought of you,” the friend wrote. “I know you’ve been struggling a bit lately with finding what energizes you and makes you feel passionate and excited.”
The package arrived in the mail a couple of days later – a small, 5” x 7” sketchbook. Only it was no ordinary store-purchased, off-the-shelf artist’s sketchbook. It was from the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project, a creative endeavour that has seen thousands of people fill sketchbooks with artwork and send them to the library where they are put on display. Since 2006, some 36,000 artists’ books have been collected from more than 135 countries to be exhibited in the library, located in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighbourhood.
“I was puzzled,” says Emery, who teaches in the School of Media and Design. “My first thought was ‘What am I going to do with this? ‘I have nothing to fill it.’ I was in the middle of a busy school year and I didn’t have any ideas for drawing.”
Those doubts didn’t last long. Emery would eventually fill the sketchbook with some three dozen illustrations presenting a colourful, humorous, and sometimes sardonic take on how she and her friends have handled life during the COVID-19 pandemic – everything from making corona cocktails to the mistake of cutting your own hair. When the sketchbook was filled she sent it off to join those thousands of others on the Brooklyn library’s shelves.
Only the story didn’t end there. The friend’s gift proved to be one that keeps on giving. As Emery puts it: “It’s like a stone tossed into a pond, creating all these ripples.”
When the COVID-19 crisis hit in March, Emery kept reading about the different things people were doing as they adjusted to the crisis. An article by the American film director Julio Gambuto proved inspiring. He described the pandemic as a “Great Pause” and urged people to use this period to rethink their values.
“I was taken by this idea of The Great Pause and I started thinking about all the things we were doing during this pause,” says Emery. “I looked at what my friends were posting on social media about what they were doing. One was blogging her recipes. Another was exercising more because she had more time. Others were baking bread or trying knitting.”
Emery began filling the sketchbook with imaginative takes on these activities, posting the results on her Facebook and Instagram accounts each day.
The sketches struck a cord. “I was gobsmacked that my drawings resonated with so many people. When I put them (on Facebook) they would say that’s what they were doing.”
Suggestions that Emery should produce a booklet quickly followed, with admirers wanting to buy one, two, maybe three copies for themselves and their friends.
Emery resisted the idea at first. She thought of the sketchbook as a one-off for the Brooklyn library. Only people kept sending messages saying how much they enjoyed her artwork and would she please make copies available.
Bowing to the marketplace, Emery arranged with Charles Downey, manager of TPH (The Printing House), to produce 25 copies. She announced on Facebook that the booklet would be available at $10, enough to cover printing costs and postage. Emery’s The Great Pause sold out immediately. And that only created more demand.
“I was shocked,” says Emery. “In three days, I had a pre-order for 200 books.”
But even after ordering and shipping these copies, the requests continued. Emery ordered another a print run of 150 and make them available on Etsy, an online sales site, thinking that would be the end of it. She also doubled the price to $20, telling would-be buyers that after covering her costs, all proceeds would go to highjinx, a community charity on Kent Street. The price increase didn’t deter sales. She was sold out by mid-June.
Facing with such demand, Emery ordered another 200 copies late this week. “Pre-sales are ridiculous, but I might as well help a charity out.”
Emery attributes the sketchbook’s appeal to the notion that art provides people with solace and a sense of meaningfulness in troubled times. “I’ve been moved to tears by some of the responses, people thanking me for the sketchbook. They tell me I’ve taken a difficult time and turned it into something memorable and positive.”
So it seems. “I’m so glad this is a beautiful book that’s family-friendly,” said one purchaser. “It’ll be a good keepsake but most importantly I hope it inspires my children in their documenting of this odd season we are living.”
“This artistic journal/diary is inspiring, comforting, and joyful,” said another fan. “I find myself turning to Andrea’s artwork and words whenever I need a lift from the news.”
“Thank you for this beautiful book that perfectly sums up this challenging time we have been living in,” said a former student.
The City of Ottawa Archives has also taken a shine to Emery’s sketchbook, asking her to contribute The Great Pause to the city’s future COVID-19 archival collection. “I’m so pleased to contribute art to this effort,” she says. “It’s pretty much as close as I am going to get to having my work in a museum.”
All of this has left Emery feeling immensely grateful to the friend who sent her the gift – Victoria, B.C. resident Laura Brisson. “It was a wonderful kindness that has made many other people happy,” says Emery, who dedicated the sketchbook book to Brisson.
Brisson’s apparent motive in gifting the sketchbook highlights its overarching theme, says Emery. “Laura touched me with her gift. I’ve touched all these other people with my sketchbook, and they, in turn, have touched other people.
“We constantly hear this refrain that we’re all in this together, but we don’t necessarily think we are. But when you create something that resonates with somebody else, it does connect you.
“It’s all about ripples. We need to remember that.”
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