What is a Drawing? Exhibition at Madison Central Public Library Redefines an Art Form

Culture

Apr 6

[vc_row][vc_column][title type="subtitle-h6"]Hannah Mumm[/title][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="11/12"][vc_column_text]It is uncommon for a public library to offer a platform for innovative creativity. Libraries are generally considered to be places of research and reference rather than novelty and creation. Madison Central Public Library is challenging the traditional library role with the Bubbler, its creativity and arts program created and maintained by Head Bubblerarian and Madison-based artist Trent Miller. I spoke with Miller about the Bubbler - including its newest exhibition Luck of the Draw - a survey of drawings that is expanding the functions of the library to include multiple modes of creative learning and actively altering the way art forms are categorized. Luck of the Draw highlights illustrations created with a broad spectrum of diverse mediums, thereby raising the question: What is a drawing? The Bubbler Room, courtesy of Madison Public Library Miller, who has a background in curation to supplement his artistic expertise, came up with the idea for Luck of the Draw and curated it himself. He invited friends and colleagues who focus extensively on drawing to each submit an illustration to be displayed in the Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery at the Madison Central Public Library. His offer had one catch: at the close of the exhibition, the contributors would receive a random piece from the exhibit in place of their own. When people intend to create pieces bound for another artist's collection, Miller believes that they think about [their artistic processes] differently. In addition to shaking up creative conventions, Miller hopes that the random exchange will create a community of artists dispersed between Madison, Wisconsin, and the rest of the nation.As a Madison-based artist and former UW Madison painting and drawing lecturer, Trent Miller's ties to the city between two lakes run deep. With the goal of spreading the arts amongst the local community, he designed and developed the Bubbler as an outlet through which artists, library patrons, and community members could share creative knowledge and accomplishments. Through the Bubbler, Miller aims to give the Madison community (including broke University students) access to a creative outlet through the widely accessible platform of a public library free of charge. Bubbler programming is not limited to traditional art forms like painting or ceramics. They offer workshops in everything from ìscreen-printing to video game design to creative writing,î have an ongoing Artist in Residence program, and run exhibitions centered on a variety of art forms. With Luck of the Draw, the Bubbler continues to connect people with and without creative backgrounds through an innovative and exciting show of artistic talent. Trent Miller, photo courtesy of the artist Luck of the Draw is a local landmine. About a fourth of the contributors are Madison-based artists and of those, many are UW professors and recent UW graduate students. Miller himself is a part of the exhibition; he designed its promotional poster and displays a copic marker illustration titled Sledding in the back of the gallery. While teeming with local talent, the pool of contributors is still incredibly diverse, featuring artists hailing everywhere from Ripon to Chicago to Brooklyn. In addition to promoting art from a multitude of geographic backgrounds, Luck of the Draw draws from a fifty year age bracket. With ages ranging from early twenties to seventies, some artists are fresh out of college while others are gearing up for retirement. Miller chose to include a sundry sample of contributors to participate in the exhibit to form a comprehensive survey of drawing. ìThe more broad and diverse, the better, he states.The walls of the Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery are lined with pen, pencil, charcoal, and graphite, but dispersed among traditional forms of drawing are prints created using innovative methods in avant-garde mediums. One such piece is Madison-based artist Roy Easleyís Neck Hair Nancy, a fabric drawing reminiscent of embroidery. Other drawings feature oil, acrylic, watercolor, felt, aluminum, and mixed media, to name a few. Through Luck of the Draw, Miller hopes to show what drawing looks like in 2016.Miller and many of the exhibitís contributors are sparking a definition revolution. Luck of the Draw challenges the common conception that a drawing is limited to a spattering of pen or pencil on paper. The modern sketch artist need not confine himself to graphite and ballpoint, but rather may fill his toolkit with multifarious material until overflowing with the means to construct groundbreaking works of art.