ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A new exhibit opening this Friday at Rochester’s Central Library on South Avenue is turning notebooks into visual art.
What visual artist and writer Samantha Steiner is sharing has to be seen to be believed. Her personal notebooks are display in a new exhibit, "Imaginative Notebooks.”
“So it is part to-do list and then part scrapbook,” Steiner said. “And for me this is a really cool sort of documentary form.”
There are 20 notebooks full of colorful doodles and sketches of what she’s doing, where she’s been or going and how she’s feeling for the past 20 years.
“In my 2011 to 2012 notebook, I did a drawing of a heart that was inspired by a necklace that my grandmother had,” Steiner said. “When she died that necklace became mine.”
She says this creativity sparked when Steiner was in fifth grade. She says she started doodling in her first school planner out of boredom, and from then on, she was hooked.
“For me it was a great way to express myself," Steiner said. “I’m hoping somebody young will see this and see that art matters and see that it’s a form of expressing yourself [and] feeling like you have power in the world [and] getting your feelings out there. I believe anyone can be an artist. I feel better after I draw. I’m expressing something. I’m saying, ‘hey I’m here.’ So I hope somebody will walk by and say, ‘I can do that too.’”
Her “Imaginative Notebooks” will be on view through June 30 at the Central Library of Rochester located at 115 South Ave.
Steiner is also an award winning writer. She teaches writing workshops and publishing industry tutorials. You can find out where she’ll be teaching next by following her on Instagram @Steiner_reads.
