Chatting with the Urban Sketchers at Central Library
Genna Pianki and Jingo de la Rosa at the sixth floor of the Central Library
On Saturday, March 11, the Urban Sketchers came to Central Library in downtown Indianapolis.
But the group members who showed up for this meetup—around 20 in all—weren’t looking for books or CDs to check out. They were looking for inspiration.
Genna Pianki, who has a painting studio in the Circle City Industrial Complex (CCIC), was inspired to sketch a girl who was listening to headphones. Pianki sketched the back of her head on her sketchpad.
Ken Avidor, an artist and filmmaker also based in the CCIC, took note of the families coming up to the checkout counter in the atrium.
“I chose to draw the Central Library front desk because that’s where the action is; library patrons checking out books or asking librarians for help and information,” he said. “It’s a fun challenge to draw people, especially excited kids at the self-check machines taking out heaps of books!”
Left to Right: Ken Avidor sketching away in the Central Library atrium, Jingo de la Rosa with a Indy landscape, a portrait by Genna Pianki, and Avidor’s completed sketch.
His wife Roberta, at the same time, was sketching the dressed up mannequins—dressed up by local fashion designers—near the escalators.
Jingo de la Rosa, however, was attracted by the amazing view of downtown Indianapolis that you will find on the library’s sixth floor.
Like de la Rosa, Pianki also loves sketching urban landscapes. That is one reason she and de la Rosa helped found an affiliate of Urban Sketchers, which is a nonprofit organization with more than 300 worldwide chapters, in Indianapolis.
She recalled a conversation with de la Rosa that took place around 2016 which spurred the creation of the Indy chapter.
“I know for me, as a female, it's hard sometimes to go out and sketch or plein air paint,” she said. “So we were talking about that. What I particularly like to draw is urban landscapes. And I was like, ‘Yeah, safety in numbers and we get to have friends and an organization. Let's do it.’ So that's kind of where the concept came from.”
Urban Sketchers group shot on March 11
For de la Rosa, the monthly Indy Sketchers meet-ups help him focus on direct-observation drawing.
It’s a practice that de la Rosa, as a professor at Herron School of Art & Design and at Butler University, can share in the classroom, but you don’t have to be an art student to be an Urban Sketcher.
All that is required is to have something to write with, something to write on, and show up at their once-a-month meet-ups (and social gatherings afterwards). They post a different meet-up site every month on their Facebook page.
They’ve been to Circle City Mall, Monument Circle, and Midland Antique Mall among other Indy locations.
“That was a hard one to go to because you can't really sit down,” said Pianki. “And there's people constantly walking. So I had my sketchbook and I just found every pair of boots I could find and just quick sketches of the boots. Sometimes you get to play different games, at least I do, in my head to keep it interesting.”
But you don’t have to know how to draw boots, or anything at all, to participate in Urban Sketchers meetups. You could even be an absolute beginner.
Pianki, a project manager by profession—who has also had occasion to teach adults—brings to the Urban Sketchers the same attitude she has had as an art instructor in some local afterschool programs.
“When I taught adults to just do a simple painting, they get so stressed if it's not perfect,” she said. “Kids are like, ‘Well, what if I paint it green instead of red?’ I'm like, ‘Do it!’ That's the energetic part about kids. They have no fear.”
Sketch by Roberta Avidor
