The final project for Integrative Studio was to create an Artist Sketchbook. I decided to create a sketchbook as Mark Rothko, an American painter who was generally identified as an abstract expressionist. I was really intrigued by his simple yet complex works. He viewed art and colour as a tool of emotional and religious expression.
I did not know a lot about Mark Rothko before this project, and so I began the process of researching about his personal life and artworks. I looked at autobiographies, biographies, interviews, and blogs to understand the voice of Rothko and his life at a deeper extent. I felt all the research that I found, connected to his life as an painter, and his struggles which led him to commit suicide.
After the research, I created a draft lay out for all the pages in the book.
I wanted Rothko’s sketchbook to be personal, and so I included his thoughts, quotes, paintings, and his suicide note. I wanted it to be simple, yet full of colour and rectangles to portray Rothko’s style of art. Rothko painted humongous artworks to make the viewer feel and embrace emotions. I created a humongous, quick painting that folded out of his sketchbook to also made the viewer feel something. I also included pages of his process work, his thoughts about his own paintings, his wife, and his troubles.
During my research, I found out that Rothko’s work used to be full of bright colours like red, yellow or orange but with time and because of his struggles, he started painting smaller and darker. I painted the end pages of his journal- maroon, grey and black, to show his life’s decline. And after his dark black and grey paintings, he painted a blood red painting- which was his last piece of work. I wanted it to indicate his decision of committing suicide. And last, I decided to create his suicide note, which includes all the struggles he faced and couldn’t bear to live with anymore.
This project allowed me to creatively learn more about an artist and to embody him to create this sketchbook. The research, process and the development of this book was an amazing experience. I could not have learnt more about Mark Rothko in a better way than this.
