How to Be an Explorer of the World

My 3D grad class has been going through the book How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum by Keri Smith. This is a great book to get yourself outside and allows you to take a closer look at overlooked things. The first prompt for our class from this book was to take a walk and create a collection of things that had something in common. I collected things that crumpled. I was inspired to collect things that crumpled because it happened to be a recycling day on the day I took my walk. See my sketchbook spread below.

Our next prompt was to take a walk and again collect any item in abundance, such as leaves, and think about different ways that these items can be arranged. We were also to take a look at Andy Goldsworthy, an environmental artist, who was quoted in this book for this prompt. As I thought about what I could arrange, I came across a bunch of “helicopter” maple seeds that was all over our neighborhood. I originally tried to arrange these in patterns outside but the wind kept sweeping them away. I brought them inside and came up with these arrangements…