Drawarama
Mercedes Teixido
with Pareesa Pourian and Helen Quinn

September 18–October 8, 2022
On view during Open Hours, Bushel programs, by chance, and by appointment
(for appointments, email info@bushelcollective.org)

Bushel is thrilled to be hosting its first Alumni-curated show—exhibitions and happenings proposed by artists who have exhibited at Bushel in the past, with a single constraint: to use the opportunity to invite or engage at least one other artist or maker who has not yet been part of a Bushel program. This inaugural installment is from Mercedes Teixido, whose solo exhibition Scroll Left Scroll Right was held at Bushel’s old space at 84 Main Street in August 2016.

For DRAWARAMA, Teixido turns the Bushel space into a collaborative studio where members of the community can join in the creation of art that is drawing-based. She has invited artists Pareesa Pourian and Helen Quinn to join her by teaching one workshop each. All are welcome! No experience necessary.

Drawing is broadly defined and all workshops will include warmup exercises that introduce materials, movement, and vocabulary. Over the course of the month-long exhibit, results from the workshops will be added to the walls, forming a collaborative installation reflecting the time spent in collective drawing.

‘Teaching drawing, I am continually struck by how engaging and challenging and thrilling the experience is for participants. Drawing is an art form that bridges the worlds of the utilitarian and the conceptual, the beautiful, the representational and the enigmatic. I love inviting members of the community to enter a creative space that is so often sharply divided between makers and their audience. Teaching has long been part of my artist practice.’ —Mercedes Teixido

Drawarama Schedule
All workshops except the October 2nd class are for adults (18+).
$15 suggested donation ($10 for the youth workshop). Limited capacity. Register using the links below. The evening events are free and open to all.

Sunday Sept 18, 2–5pm
Doodlerama: An exploration of the doodle and the sketchbook
Drawing as we are doing something else. Bring a book or print material to be your doodle sketchbook (small sketchbooks provided if you don’t bring your own).
Led by Mercedes Teixido | Sign up for this workshop

Thursday Sept 22, 5:30–7pm
Evening Draw & Gather
An experiment in social drawing. Refreshments will be served. Free and open to all.

Sunday Sept 25, 2–5pm
Plants and Presence: An exploration of drawing basics through engagement with plants
Exercises in drawing that create the basis of common representational drawing language.
Led by Pareesa Pourian | Sign up for this workshop

Thursday Sept 29, 5:30–7pm
Evening Draw & Gather
An experiment in social drawing. Refreshments will be served. Free and open to all.

Sunday October 2, 11:30 am–1:30 pm
Figure drawing for Young Artists (ages 5–15)
Explore gesture drawing and blind contours in a fast-paced class for energetic young people. No experience necessary and materials are provided. Please bring a snack. Get ready to have a blast!
Led by Helen Quinn | Sign up for this workshop

Sunday October 2, 2–5pm
Surrealist Exercises and Speculative Imagery
Breaking from the rational and leaving mastery behind. Utopia/dystopia; from non-sense to another kind of sense. Led by Mercedes Teixido | Sign up for this workshop

Thursday October 6, 5:30–7pm  
Evening Draw & Gather
An experiment in social drawing. Refreshments will be served. Free and open to all.

Saturday October 8, 7:30 pm til the music stops
The Drawarama Closing-Night Lounge
Music, collaborative drawing, dancing, and generally celebrating the collected drawings and collective endeavor from the show! Refreshments will be served. Free and open to all.

Mercedes Teixido is an artist working in the areas of drawing, textile, and performance. Her work and teaching are based on first-hand engagement, improvisation, and the gestures of the everyday. She is a professor of art at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and lives and works between Claremont and Hamden, New York.

Pareesa Pourian is a painter, poet, and plant student. She currently teaches in the Fine Arts and Writing Department at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She lives in Delhi, New York.

Helen Quinn is an artist and prop stylist who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens and Treadwell, New York. She makes silkscreen prints and gouache drawings and has taught at Parsons/The New School and NYU. Every summer she looks forward to teaching art camp at Stony Creek Farmstead in Walton. Helen holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

drawing by Mercedes Teixido