Madison Children’s Museum
Visitors of all ages have plenty of chances to create art.
“Why do kids like making marks that make shapes that make stories? Adults are scared to do this. Why?”
This is the central thesis of “Drawing Fast and Slow: The Compbook Art of Lynda Barry,” on display at the Madison Children’s Museum through the end of March. The exhibit provides a glimpse into the imagination and artistic process of Wisconsin’s premier cartoonist-turned-creativity coach.
The eclectic display, located on the ground floor of a museum dedicated to free-form creativity, dissects societal attitudes and behaviors toward art. It is bursting with visionary yet kitschy paintings, drawings and collages paired with inspiring koans like, “Do kids need to draw? Do adults? Why?”
“Drawing Fast and Slow” is just the fourth exhibit of Barry’s work — and the first outside of New York. This is surprising, given that her distinguished career has spanned 35 years; she’s written and illustrated 17 books and created an off-Broadway play. From 1981 to 2008, Barry’s nationally syndicated alternative comic, “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” (which ran in Isthmus) depicted the weirdness of childhood through stories of a girl named Marlys and her brother, Freddie. The Richland Center native, whose college buddies include The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, is part of the UW-Madison art department faculty and teaches creativity workshops around the country. Since 2002, she has lived in rural Rock County on a tree nursery with her husband.
“Lynda understands that an important part of the creative process is to let go and play without a goal. The exhibit helps nurture children’s natural creativity,” says Jonathan Zarov, the museum’s marketing and communications director. But the exhibit is not just for kids: “For adults, it can help them reclaim that sense of play and creativity,” he adds.
Barry’s unrestrained art produces a subtly ordered chaos that can communicate to any viewer. It’s art that makes viewers think, “I could do that,” while encouraging them to try.
Each of the 29 notebooks on display, pages hand-turned sporadically by Barry, is brimming with fantastical creatures, wildlife and people in a style reminiscent of the adorably surreal animated show Adventure Time, with a hint of the 2014 horror hit The Babadook. Her provocative, rhetorical questions, like “How can one form be changed to another?” suggest similar sentiments to the self-affirming statements of multimedia artist Miranda July.
Barry’s exuberant exhibit also includes several interactive elements. She incorporates these into classes she’s teaching on drawing, writing and the creative process as a fellow at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery and as part of the UW art department faculty.
In one activity, visitors spin a wheel to choose what to draw: a monster, a monkey, scissors or a chicken. Nearby, two hourglasses sit next to a box of colored pencils. A stack of index cards is divided into sections labeled 1 Minute and 2 Minutes, corresponding to the time in each hourglass. Visitors draw on the cards and leave them for Barry and her students. Recently, Barry’s class added a visitor’s drawing of a monster to a compbook page with the question, “What if his name was Billy?”
Visitors can view “Drawing Fast and Slow” (and draw something) in the ground-floor Community Concourse at the Madison Children’s Museum, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday. The exhibit is free and runs through March 31.
