I went to soex's annual Monster Drawing Rally at Verdi Club. I didn't know what to expect. On one hand, I am a huge fan of illustrations, on the other it's often hard for me to blend in with an artsy crowd. But I came to realize there was a good blend of everything here. Everyone had a curious eye and most seem to appreciate the various styles of art displayed here.
I had to put myself in the artists' place. The set up has them sitting in the inner part of the tables and "spectators" just gather around to stare at what comes out their pencil tip. I found it incredibly distracting! The high energy music blaring on the stage probably did not help the fine tipped brushes from perfecting a happy little tree.
But the venue was too small for such an interesting event. I could NOT for the life of me move much. It took about 15 minutes to get from one side to the other. A real fire hazard for sure. I wanted to see that dude who made this large piece drawn from office supply pens! That's another cool thing, so many artists were using different forms of tools. I saw a guy carving heavy card stock to make a 3D piece. A guy using crayons to make abstract designs. An older gentlemen with basic No. 2 pencils. Watercolors, acrylics, thread, a toy cow, fountain pens, oil from their unbathed scalp, markers, gel pens, etc. It was really cool what each artist preferred to use.
$50 is the affordable cost for each piece. If more than one buyer wanted the same piece, the winner was determined by the highest drawn card from a deck of cards. Shame, I really would have enjoyed a "Do-ah-hear-fiddyfive-fiddyeight--siddy-siddy-sixxty-there! SOLDforsiddyfive-to-tha-ladee-with-the-brown-hat!"
It was a good hour spent. But seriously, this needed to be hosted in a bigger venue as I'm sure it gains popularity over the years. And I'd like to introduce all the attendees to soap. It was really musty in there. read more