Local Color keeps it casual with Sketchbook Show
A collection of sketchbooks by Sami Woolhiser, a fourth-year painting major from San Jose, California. Photo by Ashlee McCurdy.
Sicky Nar Nar hosted the Local Color club’s Sketchbook Show Friday night, providing an opening space for one of SCAD’s painting clubs. The event was open to all SCAD students and displayed a great variety of work.
“We have printmaking, sketching, mixed media works and everything you can think of,” said fourth-year painting major Sami Woolhiser, the president of Local Color Club and a San Jose, California native.
The shop was filled with works sorted by price, everything on display in the center and hung around the room. The intended informality of the evening created a welcoming and relaxed environment for viewers.
“Local Color wanted to do a little bit more of a fun show, usually we do something really formal,” said Woolhiser.
Both Woolhiser and Local Color Vice President Mizuki Katakura submitted work for the exhibit.
“There are a few of my sketches lying around, but the bulk of my work is putting things up and making everything run,” said Katakura, an art history graduate student. “We have been planning since the beginning of the quarter.”
“I decided to put in my little cigar box full of notebooks and sketchbooks. I tried to finish one or two a month and so it was just kind of a little collection that I have made up,” said Woolhiser. “Most of the sketchbooks aren’t for sale because they are so special and we spend so much time on them.”
Local Color utilized their funds to supply food and drinks such as soda, vegetable and cheese platters, crackers, cookies and even cinnamon rolls.
The club runs an event each quarter, generally more formal than this. They often provide workshops for students as well. For this show, the students submitting their artwork were asked to price their submissions at a level they themselves would be willing to pay.
“The last one was a pretty formal juried exhibition and you know, it’s spring quarter so we thought it would be fun to do something a little more informal and something that is open to all SCAD students,” said Katakura. “I thought a sketchbook show would be a good idea because it would promote more exchange between students, most of the time the artwork is too expensive for them.”
The works were grouped together by price levels, which included $15 and under, $5 and under, and even $1 items. The most expensive piece of art for sale was priced at $45. The prices were intended to be affordable for college students.
Miscellaneous sketches for sale. Photo by Ashlee McCurdy.
Students stopped by the event in groups, by themselves, and some even brought out-of-town visitors.
“I think it is really cool that anyone can put whatever they want in the show and there is less stress about it looking good because you know they’re all sketches and you just kind of hope that someone sees value in what they’ve made,” said second-year animation major Sara Roma from Papillion, Nebraska.
“I came with [Sara] because her stuff is here but I just really love everything people make and stuff like that. Just the fact that all of these are sketches and that they make all of these amazing styles, it is crazy. It blows my mind,” said first-year film and television major Victoria Lhowe from Madison, Georgia.
Club leaders Katakura and Woolhiser presented their passion of artwork through their hard work, dedication and promotion of the event. They also motivated entrants by offering several awards, which included Best Conceptual, the Local Color Choice Award, Best in Show, Best Narrative, Best Mixed Media and the Creepy Award. The winners were displayed at the back of the gallery.
