Dr Sketchy's takes off

MARTIN DE RUYTER

GET SKETCHING: Art students Kirsten Fitzsimons, left and John Roughan with performers Jasmine Turner, second left, Jen Calder, and Alesha Chisnall prepare for the first Dr Sketchy's Anti Art School at the Phat Club.

The Nelson art scene is about to get a bit sexy.

The opposite of still life, self-professed "anti-art" is a worldwide phenomenon that has branches in London, Rome and New York. It's Dr Sketchy's and it's coming to a venue near you.

You might not usually equate burlesque dancers with life drawing. You wouldn't usually have a life drawing class in the Phat Club, Nelson's music venue for everything from drum'n'bass to reggae. But that's the point.

"It's something different," says organiser Jasmine Turner, of burlesque dance troupe the Diamond Dolls. "It's not sitting in a lit room with just a naked person. That has its place but I think this is something a bit more fun."

The format is simple. A show where anyone from any background can come with their pad and pencil, charcoal, crayons or easel and have access to an art class with some dynamism.

"The Diamond Dolls dress up in their burlesque outfits, pose, shed a few layers and then pose again. It's got music, fun and art."

It is a chance to get up close and personal with burlesque dancers (simmer down – not that personal) during an evening of art with a cabaret twist.

It's that point of difference that has art student John Rougham interested. "Sketching, women, music – all my favorite things rolled into one."

Not that Dr Sketchy's is just an excuse to have a sleazy art show. It is R18 but it is first and foremost about the art. However, Diamond Doll Jen Calder says that is not what it is all about.

"The whole situation takes some of that pretension away and that feeling that you have to be ... an artist to do art. The purpose of this is that you draw whatever you see, however you see it.

"And it's fun for us because we are just being silly anyway."

The idea for Dr Sketchy's originated four years ago in New York. Performance artist Molly Crabapple was looking for something different to spice up the local art scene. Since then, the movement has grown to 100 branches worldwide. Turner says it took a three-stage process to be approved by Crabapple to start the show locally. Crabapple takes her idea seriously and starting a Dr Sketchy's is increasingly competitive.

The Nelson Dr Sketchy's will be the first in the South Island, with two already running in Auckland and Wellington.

The response has been impressive, Ms Turner says.

People are already planning what to bring. One aspiring artist has decided to take along only one crayon and a pad.

"It's communal," Ms Calder said. "It's just a big group of people getting together for the process of creating. You don't have to come away with anything at the end; you can just draw for two hours and have fun, and I think that is rare nowadays."

• Dr Sketchy's launch party, Thursday November 5 at The Phat Club, 7pm to 10.30pm. $5 at the door.

- © Fairfax NZ News