As appearing in The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Eat, sleep, art, repeat describes the typical life of an art student at Colorado State University.

On Friday, November 6th, 11 drawing concentration students switched that up from 7 – 12 p.m. the following day, when they spent a night in the studio drawing, collaborating and forgoing sleep all in the name of art.

“The purpose of this night isn’t to finish a project,” said Kayla Moore, a senior drawing capstone student. “It’s just to hang out with other creative people and make things. Just because you want to.”

Ajean Ryan, drawing professor, started the drawing marathon when she started teaching at CSU in 2010.

Ryan was inspired from the philosophy developed from the Bauhaus movement, an art school in Germany famous for the combined crafts and the fine arts.

She got the idea from Bauhaus artist Joseph Beuys who would take his students on nature and urban pilgrimages to get them outside of the classroom.

“I do believe that most teaching happens outside of the classroom,” Ryan said. “I don’t know if I should be saying that.”

Moore echoed her teacher’s sentiments.

“In an educational structure, it tends to stagnate creativity,” Moore said. “Oftentimes, the best creativity is in a collective, when we’re all exhausted and tired.”

Senior art student Nisty Tharp said that this creative space forced students to be open.

“I think a lot of your best work comes when you’re not thinking about it too hard,” Tharp said.

As well as working on their individual pieces for the night, together the students created an image from the biblical story of the tower of Babel.

They were inspired by a collaboration of artists who had created different layers of the tower in their own style.

“We’re creating a space together,” Moore said.

Collegian Reporter Hannah Hemperly can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @kawanhannah.