Artists dash it off at Monster Drawing Rally in Pasadena

They’re quick on the draw. When you have only one hour to create multiple works of art, you have to be. Such will be the case at the Monster Drawing Rally on June 1 hosted by the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. One hundred volunteer artists will take turns sitting at a communal table for one hour, working in front of a crowd of onlookers, then offering their speed drawings, paintings and mixed-media pieces for $75 a pop.

Beyond the fundraising benefits for the nonprofit Armory, chief curator and director of gallery programs Irene Tsatsos said, and beyond the affordable original art to be scored by the public, the event holds significance as a form of community building — linking artists to the institution and connecting the public to those artists, some more directly than others.

“Some are very focused on what they do, they have an ability to block out all activity around them. And some will be chatting,” Tsatsos said of the participants.

Works appearing on this page were made at the 2013 rally and are still for sale, price reduced to $50. New work will be created for this year’s event, which runs from 1 to 6 p.m. at the Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave. Admission is $10. Information: (626) 792.5101, https://www.armoryarts.org/monster

craig.nakano@latimes.com