I was in Washington DC over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and thanks to a tip from a reader, I went to one of the Smithsonian museums to see a cool little exhibit on artists’ diaries: A Day in the Life: Artists’ Diaries from the Archives of American Art. It’s not a huge exhibition, and the lighting and glass cases can make it difficult to actually read the diaries they have on display, but it’s well worth seeing nonetheless. Here’s some photos I snapped:

There was another fascinating exhibition right next door on the artist James Castle. He was a self-taught artist who used whatever scraps of paper he had around the house to draw on. These two works kind of fit the notebook theme!

The diaries exhibit will be on display until Feb. 28, 2015 in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, inside the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at 8th and F Streets, NW– it’s in the same building as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. Open daily 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Admission is free.