On Sunday, Oct. 5, a classroom on the third floor of Cummings was filled with 35 art students eagerly drawing away, taking part in an annual drawing marathon sponsored by Conn’s Art department. The marathon was mandatory for students from both sections of the introductory foundation art course “Concepts in Two Dimensions.” The students drew nonstop from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., with the exception of a short breakfast at the beginning and an hour for lunch.
Two students that participated in the marathon, Riley Burfeind ’18 and Gabriela Osterling ’18, expressed that although they enjoyed participating in the marathon, it was quite physical. “Because we were drawing nonstop, after a while our arms started to hurt and our hands got tired,” Burfeind commented.
Since the students worked on the same piece throughout the whole day, they had to retouch and rework their drawings over and over again even if at some points they thought they were finished. “There were points where I thought I was done, but I knew that I had to keep going because we still had time left,” said Osterling. Burfeind agreed with Osterling, also saying that although she didn’t want to mess up what she drew, she had to keep changing her the drawing and altering it because of the time that was left in the marathon.
The drawings from the marathon are currently displayed on the third floor of Cummings. If you go and view the finished products of the marathon, you will see that each student’s drawings are unique and include different shapes, use of lines and textures. To create these drawings, students used charcoal, erasures and white gesso because these mediums are very compatible and capable of being used in conjunction with each other in layers.
When asked if the students’ drawings were inspired by a certain artist and or if the students were required to draw in a certain style, Associate Professor of Art Timothy McDowell stated that Paola Ricci, last month’s visiting artist from Venice, had played a role in the marathon.
“Paola Ricci was a factor in that her performance was a demonstration of an artist’s focus and stamina, especially since she drew for three days for a cumulative total of 14 hours,” commented McDowell. McDowell also mentioned he thinks Ricci’s performance influenced the students by showing “the range of obsession and commitment one can direct towards an art project.”
This year marks the third year the Art department has sponsored the drawing marathon. However, this is the first time that it has been offered as part of the first-year experience to incoming students. When asked whether or not Professor McDowell thought the marathon was successful, he commented, “I think it was a success and it was a great effort by Paola Ricci and our own faculty like Gary Buttery, Ken Prestininzi and Lisa Race to contribute to that part of the performance experience and then have the students take their turn at experiencing the act of drawing in such an intense and large scale.”
Though there were points in the day where the students may have gotten frustrated with having to keep changing their drawings due to the fact that they were drawing on the same piece of paper for five hours, in the end it seemed that overall they enjoyed the whole experience. When asked how they thought it went, both Burfeind and Osterling agreed that they both enjoyed the marathon because it was something that they had had never done before.
Professor McDowell noted that the Art department will continue to offer opportunities to students such as the drawing marathon and inviting artists to Conn, especially since funding for these events came through the generosity of the Weissman Visiting Artist Fund. •
