City artist’s sketchbook reaches New York

Located in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Art Library is home to over 41,000 sketchbooks from over 130 different countries — it is a free museum where visitors can ‘touch’ the art. Their global interactive art project titled The Sketchbook Project enables anyone in the world to order a blank sketchbook from them, fill it up, and send it back to be part of the largest collection of sketchbooks in the world.

One such Chennaiite whose artwork currently sits on their shelves is Aditi Maithreya. Her sketchbook titled ‘Darwaza’ aims to artistically and philosophically show India’s history, architecture, culture and colours through watercolour paintings of women standing by doors. “I saw an ad about the project on social media and when I read up about it further, I found the concept interesting so I decided to take it up,” begins Aditi.

After ordering a sketch book from the library, they give participants a set of themes to choose from. “My theme comes under the category ‘This One Thing’ and I made it about doors,” she says adding, “There’s something about colourful walls, windows and doors that catch your eye when you travel across India and I’d always wanted to make something based on this. I take up different challenges like Inktober and 26 days of type (based on the alphabets), so I suppose my love for doors found its challenge in this book!”

One of her favourite experiences was during a college trip to Rajasthan. Recalls Aditi, “The architecture was very different from what one can find in Chennai. The women also wore different attires and accessories — the vivid colours combined with the sight of old buildings and cultural fabric went into making my sketchbook.” She says that it has a philosophical approach too. “I think there’s always something beyond a door. It leads to new discoveries and beginnings, something positive and hopeful so the tagline of my artwork is ‘on the threshold of a new life’ from a woman’s point of view,” she explains.

The best thing about The Sketchbook Project for her is that she gets to be part of a community of artists from across the world. “You don’t know them, they don’t know you but they inspire you to create something and give you so much exposure in terms of different mediums, ideas and more.”

The project also gives participants the option of digitising their sketchbooks so that the pictures can be uploaded onto their website. “When I saw some of the other books, the artists had mentioned how they had literally given a part of themselves to the art. I felt glad that I could give a little part of me, the country I come from, the places I’ve visited and the colours I’ve seen, to the book,” she sums up.