Art is up-close and personal at Monster Drawing Rally

"Monster Drawing Rally" may suggest images of oversized 4x4 trucks or a gallery of "Scooby-Doo" villains, but it's something completely different.

Artists and onlookers will gather Dec. 11 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Across three one-hour shifts, more than 50 artists will churn out original drawings.

Here's the deal:

"As soon as they hit the wall, they're for sale for a flat fee of $35," said Scott Stulen, the IMA's curator of audience experiences and performance.

The innovative public art sale is the latest brainchild of Stulen, who brought "B-Movie Bingo" and the "Optical Popsicle" variety show to the IMA this fall. Hired in February, he is paid to program events that are engaging, provocative and far from routine.

Admission to the rally is free, and Stulen describes the event as a way for attendees to build an art collection and help launch an educational program for teenagers.

Stulen plans to take a drawing shift in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion, where he predicts a festive atmosphere in which artists get to know one another and the public gets to know the artists.

"You can actually see me and make a connection between me and my art," Stulen said.

Kate Oberreich and fellow art students got together to draw during her days at Ball State University, but they didn't call it a "Monster Drawing Rally."

"It was, 'Come hang out in my dorm room,' " said Oberreich, a 2005 BSU graduate who is part of the rally roster.

The Indianapolis artist remembers the collegiate exercise being equal parts creativity and procrastination.

"We'd get together and draw, pass drawings around and draw on each other's as a means of not doing an assignment," she said.

Mixed-media artist Oberreich landed sketches of paper airplanes, ladders and branches in "The Fault in Our Stars," this year's hit movie based on the novel by Indianapolis author John Green. The drawings are seen in the bedroom of main character Hazel Grace Lancaster.

Oberreich said sketches are crucial to her creative process.

"I can do hours with one page or an hour with many pages," she said.

At the rally, speed of drawings may vary. "Some artists may make one drawing during the hour," Stulen said. "Some artists may make 20."

No requests for drawing topics are allowed during the event, and no artwork will be sold for more than the $35 price.

Stulen said it's no accident the rally is happening when holiday shopping is in full swing.

"You're getting original artwork at an impulse purchase price of $35," Stulen said.

All funds collected at the event will be used as seed money for an IMA teen arts council.

"Teens are one of the most difficult groups to program for," he said. "It's hard to make things cool enough."

The teen council will coordinate two events designed to attract peers, as well as meet visiting artists and be on hand when exhibitions are installed.

"We want to give insider access and professional development they probably aren't getting in school," Stulen said.

The rally won't be restricted to conventional drawing on paper. Stulen specializes in adding flocking (fine fibers typically used for decoration or stuffing) to surfaces such as vintage sports cards.

He worked in a sports memorabilia shop in the 1990s and once purchased a car thanks to a gaggle of Michael Jordan rookie cards.

Emily Kennerk is a rally artist who is transitioning from large-scale sculptures to smaller two-dimensional work. The 1998 Herron School of Art alum said Indiana's flat terrain influences her work.

"I'm not building these forms right now, but I'm still exploring the horizon," Kennerk said. "It's becoming more abstract."

And Rebecca King customizes photographs with strokes of silver Sharpie markers. King, co-founder of Theater of Inclusion with Dante Ventresca, said she first altered images after traveling to Europe on a 2009 creative renewal fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.

King shot 8,000 photographs in the course of 10 days.

"It's really easy to get overwhelmed by everything there is to look at when you're somewhere new," the rally participant said. "I needed all the visual clutter to go away, and I had some markers on my desk. It seemed like a really easy solution."

Call Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.

Monster Drawing Rally

>> WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 11.

>> WHERE: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 N. Michigan Road.

>> ADMISSION: Free.

>> INFO: Visit IMAmuseum.org or call (317) 923-1331.