In high school, I used to draw comics during 6th period geometry class. I sketched with Pigma pens and watercolor paint. The stories (from time-travel epics to swoony vampires) were typed on Bank Street Writer (pre-Microsoft Word), cut and Glue-sticked onto paper. After the first page, I often tossed them out and started something new.

My mom saved a few of my old sketchbooks, along with a battered copy of The Watercolor Painter's Solution Book. Today I'm more into pen-and-ink (although pencil, as seen in the smaller doodles above, was my weapon of choice in Art class).

Last week, the Sun Sentinel book critic, Chauncey Mabe, visited my college. He talked about sneaking into the library as a teenager, staring at the stacks, and thinking about the power in the books. (Does anybody know what's in these stories? he wondered. Politicians would close the place down). He said the artist's job is not to imitate the way things look...but to create new ways of seeing the world.

In that spirit, Readergirlz is hosting Art Saves: a program to encourage creativity in schools and libraries across the country. Teens can download the Art Saves template on the Readergirlz website and contribute with their own sketches and photographs.

Scan your artwork as a JPG and send it to Little Willow:

artsaves(at)slayground(dot)net