DRAW

Dec 04, 2023

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Families let their creative juices flow at Energy Square at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON Saturday.

Family after family stepped inside D.R.A.W.'s cool air-conditioned storefront space to escape blistering hot temperatures into the 90s and to take part on an art project and take home a free emergency drawing kit featuring crayons and something to draw on.

"It's been steady all day long, everyone is drawing and having a blast," D.R.A.W. Founder and retired Kingston High School teacher Lara Giordano said.

All the walls were papered to allow people to pick up and draw, put together a collage from the collage station or create a drawing out of recycled newspapers or stock drawings of food in a pink fridge.

Even the windows were an open canvas, with images of an airplane and a bee, among other things.

Still another station featured an imitation tree stump that dispensed Easter eggs with facilitated ideas for a project.

In one corner was the DRAW-A-TRON, a drawing machine made by SUNY New Paltz fine arts student and Kingston High graduate Kaya Keller. The machine offered drawings of monsters, animals, objects and "random" at the push of a button, with the image spitting out of a slot.

"We built it in about three months," Keller said.

Over at another station, Dezha King of Kingston, who works as an assistant teacher during D.R.A.W's regular classes, was creating a wire drawing.

"I love painting but honestly there are a lot of things I haven't done," she said.

Alyssa Gougoutris of Kingston, was helping her nephew Dexter Hayett, 5, with a watercolor. She teaches children in third to fifth grades at D.R.A.W.'s Saturday classes. "We work with different ways of art, different mediums and different practices," she said.

Jocelyn Bergen, one of D.R.A.W's artist-teachers, was working on a paper arts station alongside Maxine Leu. Bergen specializes in paper arts and bookbinding and was showing visitors how to make a little eight-page book out of a piece of paper.

"I love supporting the community," she said.

Leu said she loves helping with printmaking and sculpture projects with an environmentally-friendly bent during open studio sessions.

"I like taking trash and making something out of it," she said.

Artists Maxine Leu (L) and Jocelyn Bergen worked the paper arts station at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022

Artist Jocelyn Bergen works on a folded paper art project at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

SUNY New Paltz student Kaya Keller demonstrates her creation DRAW-A-TRON at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

UNY New Paltz student Kaya Keller requests a random drawing from her creation DRAW-A-TRON at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

SUNY New Paltz student Kaya Keller demonstrates her creation DRAW-A-TRON at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Free "emergency drawing kits" featuring crayons and paper were offered at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

The Cabinet of Curiosities station at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

A drawing on the superhero section of a wall at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Pet portraits hung on a mantle at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Department of Regional Art Workers Director and retired Kingston High School teacher Lara Giordano shows of Easter eggs dispensed out a stump that offered facilitated ideas for drawings at the DRAW-A-THON at D.R.A.W.'s space at Energy Square in Midtown, Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

A stump dispensed Easter eggs with facilitated ideas for drawings at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Even the windows were an open canvas at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Another panel was filled with works inspired by artist Keith Henning at at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Alyssa Gougoutris, of Kingston, who teaches students in grades 3-5 in the Department of Regional Art Workers classes. Helps her nephew Dexter Hayett, 5, with a watercolor during D.R.A.W.'s DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022.

Another panel was filled with works inspired by artist Keith Henning at at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Collages filed a wall at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Collages filed a wall at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Drawings covered the walls at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Drawings covered the walls at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Drawings of food covered a full size pink fridge at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

A panel offered artists a chance to draw their favorite foods at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

Collage supplies at the Department of Regional Art Workers DRAW-A-THON at Energy Square in Midtown Kingston, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).

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