Would you doodle for a difference?

When I was growing up my family, or one half of the family at least, were the sort of people who would make me endure dinners at Scrooges — a “family” steakhouse that offered a “one-hour, 1kg steak, one litre of beer” special on week nights. I had an uncle who was a sucker for the challenge of consuming a whole cow and a whole brewery in an hour, and because he was a favourite among the grannies, many family outings centered around watching him succeed or fail at this. While this recurrent experience almost certainly traumatised me into vegetarianism, one good thing came of my days at Scrooges — I learned the pleasure of drawing in public and on things usually not meant to be drawn on. Scrooges is the first restaurant I can remember being at where they provided cheap paper tablecloths and cups of crayons for bored kids to draw abattoirs and murder scenes while they witnessed the fate of all friendly farm animals.

I was ecstatic to read on the invitation to tonight’s (Thursday, November 27) Night of 1 000 Drawings event at the Bus Factory in Newtown that there will be plenty opportunity for public drawing, without any cow massacres! Based on a similar initiative begun in the United States, Night of 1 000 Drawings is an annual exhibition event spearheaded by graphic designer and extremely good person David Chong to raise funds for Paballo Ya Batho, a homeless care organisation working in the inner city. Usually what happens is hundreds of artists, designers and aspirant versions of both donate A5 drawings, or “doodles”, which are sold at a one-night event (called Night of 1 000 Drawings) for R100 a pop. The money goes towards keeping Paballo Ya Batho’s weekly mobile soup kitchen on the road in addition to enabling a range of homeless aid activities undertaken by the organisation, including support groups, legal aid and medical care.

Tonight, instead of a drawing exhibition, Night of 1 000 Drawings launches a limited edition artist’s book titled Doodle for a Difference. Legion Collective, the design team behind Doodle for a Difference, has had over 300 doodles from the 2007 Night of 1 000 Drawings professionally photographed in various locations around Johannesburg and Cape Town and has collated these images into a limited edition A5 book. Each drawing has been photographed at a unique, contextually relevant urban site and photographers who have contributed to this effort include Chris Saunders, Ross Garret, Alistair Mclachlin and Alexis Fotiadis.

Here are two photographed doodles as they appear in the book:

Besides the slick ensemble of photographed doodles, the book provides some perspective on the work of Paballo Ya Batho, the lives of the people it supports and the changing dynamics of the Johannesburg inner city, intensifying ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. There are illuminating written contributions from the organisation’s current director Ndai Mncedisi, founder Janet Hudson, other Paballo leaders and writer Sean O’Toole.

The Doodle for a Difference launch event takes place tonight, November 27, from 7pm at the Bus Factory in Newtown. That’s 3 President Street, opposite the Dance Factory and in the same complex as the Market Photo Workshop and Artist Proof Studios. As for the live pubic doodling I got so excited about in the beginning, designated doodling areas and limited doodling materials will be provided at the event. Technically, this is just for fun — there is no pressure to draw anything saleable or even a little display-worthy, so if you’re a telephone scribbler, a magazine moustache drawer or anything similar, don’t forget your crayons!

An impressive line-up of local bands and DJ’s will keep the fun going late into the night: Blk Jks, Johnny Neon, the Sick Leaves, Cutout Collective and Destrukto, King of Town, Richard the Third and Tale of the Son are on the roll. For the public, R40 will get you into the event and for R120 the doormen will throw in a copy of the book as well. Don’t be cheap — go for the book. Doodlers who contributed to the 2007 Night of 1 000 Drawings get a copy of the Doodle for a Difference book and entrance to the launch event for R80.

For more information see the Night of 1000 Drawings website. Information about the event is also available on the Paballo Ya Batho website, where you can also pick up a copy of the book if you can’t make it to the launch event.

Paballo’s website is worth looking through anyway, even if you are unlikely to attend the launch or buy the book. Its design, courtesy of Legion Collective (the design team behind Doodle for a Difference), is quite remarkable, besides which, the organisation is constantly looking for volunteers to help with its weekly outreach programme and advocacy initiatives.