Partying Sketchbook Skool Style
For me as a European, the Day of the Dead sounds kind of exotic. When we were planning a party, themed Day Of The Dead, for Sketchkon last year, I had only a vague idea of what it was. Very timely, Netflix added the movie *Coco*. I watched it as soon as it came out on Netflix and really loved it. If you haven’t seen it, put it on your list. It may seem strange that an animated movie helped me to give a deeper understanding of this special celebration day, but it did.
That party in Pasadena, during Sketchkon, was a feast of recognition, and even more so, of confirmation.
Seeing all these people who traveled to Pasadena to meet their friends and to see us—Danny and me, and Morgan of course, confirmed our belief that art connects people. Deep friendships have developed because people connected online at Sketchbook Skool.
It was a special and unique experience to be surrounded by so many friends, or actually, it felt like family. Family I had never actually met in person, but with whom we’ve been building such an important relationship since we founded Sketchbook Skool.
A similar experience, on a much smaller scale, was about a year after Sketchbook Skool’s launch. Both Morgan and I traveled to New York City to spend time with Danny during a team summit. It doesn’t happen often that we are all together at the same place, so we took advantage of that and organized an impromptu meetup in Washington Square Park. It was a sunny fall day and we were just hanging out and drawing in the park.
Meeting all these people who were so happy to come to the park to see us (one of them even flew in from Montreal!), gave us that same sense of confirmation: we were doing the right thing by providing a community for artists of all levels; inspiring and motivating each other in their creative journey: to start it and then keep going! Little did we know that 4 years later we would celebrate this with almost 500 people in Pasadena.
While we are working on a lot of exciting plans for Sketchbook Skool, we are also looking into Sketchkon 2020. This year, unfortunately, we had to break off our plans for Sketchkon 2019, which was quite a disappointment. However, it did give room for new ideas. If no unexpected events disrupt our plans, we will be able to pull off another unconventional convention like we hosted last year.
This year, on the Day of the Dead (November 2, 2019) I will be in New York City again. Danny will be there too, of course, and the rest of our team: Morgan, JJ and Brittany. If the weather allows, we’ll be able to do another meetup in the park. Full circle!
If you’re interested in joining us, you can RSVP and see details here.
