The other day I checked in at Drawger.com to see if there was anything new to broadcast on DART. Sure enough. Lou Brooks, a California-based artist, has created The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies, a virtual gallery show that invites participation by artists everywhere.

Minutes later, an email came from Lou telling me about the Museum and that it had been picked up by BoingBoing.net. "I've been getting photos from all over the place - more than 200 so far, along with comments that range from the sublime to the hilarious," he said.

Following is my Q&A with Lou for your midafternoon browsing. And if you are harboring any treasures in the back of your closet, click here to submit your jpegs to the Museum.

Left to right: The Boby taboret, designed by Joe Colombo and made in Italy, is in the Museum of Modern Art Architecture & Design Collection; submitted by Cris Dawson. The Grapho-Scope; submitted by Leah Palmer Preiss. The Goodkin Lucy-Scopy; submitted by Gregg Muret.

DART: How did The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies come about?
Lou Brooks: When I first joined Drawger.com a few years ago, I noticed that I could host a gallery show on the site about anything that blows my skirt up. Any artsy thing at all. So, my idea was to host a "museum" that would show various artifacts from an artist's life before computers, or "B.C." And on this section of Drawger, visitors have a chance to contribute their visuals as well.

To get things started, I posted some pictures of the old studio junk I still had lying around. A few Drawger.com members began sending stuff in, and that was that, or so I thought. But oddly enough, the Museum pushed a button in so many people, including some who aren't even artists, thanks in part to the posting on BoingBoing.

DART: How do you know when the stuff you get is from people who aren't artists?
Lou Brooks: I can tell from their comments. Just Google the Museum; you'll get tired of reading after the first twenty pages! One linked site, for example, was by a recording engineer who was thrilled to see that his was not the only world that had crossed the same threshold of our hands-on past. The Museum translates our passage from the stone age to the digital age into an extremely understandable medium: art supplies. It represents a milestone along that road that has taken place pretty much everywhere, like going from hot metal typesetting to Adobe InDesign, or from listening to the radio to podcasting.

DART: What are some of the most interesting items you've received so far?
Lou Brooks: It depends on what you mean by interesting. Some are just plain exquisite in their beauty, such as the collection of antique pen-and-ink tools still being used in the studio of Norman Quebedeau. Or Leah Palmer Preiss' gorgeous submission of the Grapho-Scope. Then there's Gregg Muret's remarkably deadpan photo of his Goodkin Lucy-Graph. I'm especially drawn to this because I used to own one exactly like it. But why is it sitting out on his lawn among the potted pansies and garden hose?

DART: Any plans for the Museum? Will there be an exhibition? A book?
Lou Brooks: I've been asked by a lot of people about a book, a poster, and so on, but I like the idea that it's free and available to everyone. As far as an exhibit, I think that could be wonderful: white walls lined with hundreds of little framed photos; display cases with the actual items; maybe even get Gregg Muret to roll his Lucy-Graph off his lawn and into a gallery.

Editor's note: Back in the day, before it was common for artists and designers to own photocopiers, the Lucy-Graph was an essential tool used to re-size artwork. But it required making a tracing of the art, so it was useful mainly to get the size exact before making Photostats for the camera-ready mechanical art.

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