For people who don't view themselves as artistically inclined, it can be particularly intimidating to draw objects from the real world. That's why artist Ariel Baron-Robbins, as she stands amid a class of beginning sketchers, assures her students that no matter what successes they may have experienced in life, it's perfectly normal to be paralyzed by fear when confronted with a blank sheet of paper and a stick of charcoal.
"It's psychologically traumatizing. Most people stop drawing when they're 10 or 11 years old," she explains before class. "They may be high-functioning adults, but when they try to draw a box or a cube, they don't get perspective. That's upsetting to people.
"If you just stop reading, you're not going to be able to pick up Faulkner," she says.
Think of the Big Draw, a month-long series of workshops and events held in Ruskin through Oct. 11, as a form of drawing-based group therapy — or a chance to cram decades of missed opportunities into a weekend or two. Already underway, the grassroots project is luring students (primarily adults, but some teens) from around the Bay area to classes like the one Baron-Robbins, a graduate student at USF's College of Visual and Performing Arts, teaches on Tuesday nights. Remaining classes include a drawing "marathon" and workshops on landscape and figure drawing, all taught by some of the area's most talented practitioners — and all free.
The project's organizers say they'd like to plant a seed in the minds of Ruskin residents: Imagine a community arts center with a regular slate of visual arts classes and exhibits for all ages. (In this what-if scenario, the performing arts are enthusiastically included, too.) For the past few weeks, they've been bringing that vision to life in an empty retail space — formerly a Dollar General — on U.S. 41. Generously donated by the building's owner, the 7,000-square-foot storefront has undergone a next-to-no-budget transformation into the Big Draw Studio with the addition of some easels and a few folding tables. Funders including the Arts Council of Hillsborough County have anted up to make the project possible, says co-organizer Bruce Marsh.
While Marsh, a retired USF art professor, leads some Big Draw workshops, his wife, Dolores Coe, a former Ringling College of Art and Design professor, serves as its organizational shepherd. For Coe, the project links back to Ruskin's origins as a utopian colony based on the ideas of 19th-century English art critic and social theorist John Ruskin, who viewed drawing — and its attendant insights into perception and reality — as a critical life skill. In fact, the Big Draw takes much of its inspiration from an event of the same name staged annually by the Campaign for Drawing, a U.K. organization also influenced by John Ruskin. As Ruskin (the Tampa Bay community) celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, somewhere its namesake must be smiling.
On Sat., Oct. 11, the Big Draw culminates with a "community draw-in" for all ages that will include hands-on drawing activities, as well as music, food and the debut of a large mural — conceived, planned and painted by local teens and adults under the direction of artist Michael Parker on a building adjacent to the Big Draw Studio location. (One of the project's secondary goals is to play a very modest part, via the mural, in ongoing efforts to revitalize Ruskin's downtown area.)
While the mural will remain in place indefinitely for local residents to enjoy, for the students in Baron-Robbins' classroom the Big Draw's payoff is more abstract.
"I knew there was going to be a different influx here to inspire me," says Rose Singleton, a South Tampa artist who has endured a 40-minute commute to attend many of the project's offerings.
Call it the spirit of John Ruskin, if you like — there's definitely something in the air at the Big Draw Studio.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2008.