From an article profiling the Canadian artist Tom Forrestall:

The Notebook

We discuss photo possibilities. As Forrestall stands up the notebook is in his hand and suddenly between us. The way he’s holding it’ the pages open up more and I can see black ink mostly. But there’s colour in there too.

I ‘d heard about Forrestall’s notebooks. He takes one everywhere.

We decide on the notebook for a photo. He wants me to select a page but the book falls open and two eyes are looking at me. They’re studies Forrestall has been doing.

“This is fine,” I say. Partly because it will be very visual for the camera but mostly because Forrestall had been talking about seeing perfection in his mind’s eye. It seems appropriate.

I take several pictures and then Forrestall leafs through the notebook to give me an idea of what it’s all about. Every page is filled with drawings, thoughts, notes, ideas. Everything from the eye studies to possible shapes of future paintings.

Thousands of Pages

There are probably about 400 of these notebooks – 150,000 pages. Forrestall’s mind on paper. I quickly grasp the significance. These would be priceless after the great man is gone. I picture everyone from art students to art historians wanting to get their hands on them. And they are art objects in themselves – valuable just by existing.

I’m not the only one who realized the importance of the notebooks. Virgil Hammock, professor emeritus of fine arts at Mount Allison University is writing a book about the notebooks and when Forrestall is gone they go to the rare book collection at Mount A’s library.

“They are books that document a life, drawings of friends, family, relationships, people he was spending time with, notes, ticket stubs, copies of articles — they are all in these notebooks.” – Monica Forrestall
I’m still thinking about the notebooks the whole time I’m writing a feature story on Forrestall. I have visions of him with these notebooks going back decades. Particularly I see him with his children when they are quite young.

Monica Remembers

I contact Forrestall’s daughter Monica in New York. We’ve sort of been friends for a few years. I ask her about the notebooks.

“I remember Dad would have his notebook out with his morning cup of coffee, and it was never far from his side at any point of the day,” Monica says. “They are books that document a life, drawings of friends, family, relationships, people he was spending time with, notes, ticket stubs, copies of articles — they are all in these notebooks.”

She described them as often being like diaries “that also have lots and lots of ideas and studies for future possible work.

“Where ever he goes his hands are never idle, with his ever-present note book,” Monica says. “It was his security blanket in a way and the notebook and pen were tools to make sure he never wasted any time.”

So the Abe Lincoln beard is appropriate.

Monica, as I suspected, also has notebooks.

“My notebooks are more diaries than sketch books,” she says, “although the memory books I make for my son are sketch books, diaries, and photo albums combined.”

Read more at The Notebooks – Arts – Nova News Now. You can see some of Tom Forrestall’s work here.