Bumbershoot Recap: The Portrait Challenge

Molo reflects on a wild weekend at his interactive visual art exhibit

DJ Supa Coup was the overall favorite for best drawings of an original model

The event couldn’t have gone off any better. Although, I’m still a little glassy-eyed from wrangling hundreds of drawings and greeting thousands of visitors that came through. Big thank you to everyone who has drawn through the years, and the folks at One Reel for bringing The Portrait Challenge to Bumbershoot. Here are some lessons I learned over the weekend:

1. Everyone wants to be a model

Many an aspiring star (including City Arts executive editor Mark Baumgarten) had their portrait snapped by the Fujifilm Instamax and became one of the models that other patrons drew. We ended up having to shut down the photography sessions early on account of the amount of participants. 

2. Teachers are thieves!   

Not really. But several teachers did ask if they could have a blank form to do this project with their students and I happily obliged. The Portrait Challenge is about encouraging the community to make art. If you ask me, teaching the youngsters how to draw funny pictures of Lady Gaga is a mighty fine idea.

3. Portraits = peace  

Despite forty plus people drawing away in a room together, the Portrait Challenge remained mostly library-quiet. Only the sounds of pencils, crayons and pens and occasional laughter could be heard, making the show a nice respite from the craziness that is Bumbershoot. Several visitors told me how nice it was just to be someplace peaceful. Maybe we should take the Portrait Challenge to the Gaza Strip.  

4. People love drawing! 

All said and done, 396 full models pages were completed and over 2500 individual drawings completed. That’s a lot of portraits! 

The late, great ODB was the overall favorite for best series of celebrity drawings

Thanks again to everyone who drew! The Portrait Challenge belongs to all who participate.

Check out all the completed drawing from Bumbershoot and other Portrait Challenge events at www.flickr.com/photos/theportraitchallenge or join the group “The Portrait Challenge” on Facebook.