{"id":76578,"date":"2023-08-17T13:37:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T20:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=76578"},"modified":"2023-08-17T13:37:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T20:37:47","slug":"taco-bell-drawing-club-public-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/taco-bell-drawing-club-public-exhibition","title":{"rendered":"Make art or eat tacos? This Long Beach club does both"},"content":{"rendered":"

To celebrate his art club’s recent third anniversary and its first public exhibition, Nick Zegel wouldn\u2019t have dreamed of going anywhere other than Taco Bell.<\/p>\n

In early 2020, Zegel, a graphic designer and Long Beach resident, launched a local Taco Bell Drawing Club in tribute to New York artist Jason Polan, the late founder of the original club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, after just a few meetings (only two people came to the first one, but things were picking up), the pandemic happened. Zegel took the fledgling club online and ended up attracting people from New Mexico, Illinois, Florida and Ann Arbor, Michigan (Jason Polan\u2019s birthplace), to its Zoom drawing sessions.<\/p>\n

The Long Beach club is free and open to anyone who feels like drawing, whether it\u2019s Sharpie stick figures or intricate pen-and-ink portraits. Members gather every couple weeks on the large patio of the Taco Bell on Broadway to make art, and maybe eat some tacos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a fan of Jason\u2019s work and I learned of his untimely passing a few years back<\/a>, and I was compelled to host a club of my own in his honor,\u201d Zegel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first meeting inspired me to continue this as I started to realize that there was a need or, like, an opportunity to build community amongst artists here in Long Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anywhere from half a dozen to 20 people usually show up for the club\u2019s meetings, which Zegel announces on social media, and he estimates more than 100 people have drawn with them since the club was formed.<\/p>\n

\"A
Long Beach artist Stephanie Han’s portrait sketches are displayed in the Taco Bell on Broadway on Aug. 16, 2023. Photo by Alicia Robinson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daniel Stafford, new to Long Beach and a newcomer to the drawing club, said ever since he stumbled upon the club\u2019s Instagram, \u201cI was always planning on coming and trying it \u2013 and it was really fun, really welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been drawing on and off his whole life, has taken a few art classes and even sold some of his work, but Stafford doesn\u2019t consider himself a professional.<\/p>\n

The casual friendliness of the Taco Bell club is right up his alley. \u201cI feel like everybody here, there\u2019s no ego, no pretentious vibe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the club\u2019s first-ever public exhibition on Wednesday, dozens of sketches \u2013 done in crayon, marker, pen and pencil \u2013 were fixed to black posterboards that hung on the restaurant patio\u2019s windows, with art on each side so guests had something to look at both inside and out.<\/p>\n

There were drawings of flowers, portraits of people, doodles including a pineapple with a mustache and a finely detailed taco, and several decorative tributes to the club.<\/p>\n

Nick\u2019s mom, Gina Zegel, visiting from New Jersey, was helping set out some tacos and other snacks for the club and any art appreciators who stopped by.<\/p>\n

Joining her son\u2019s Zoom art sessions gave Gina Zegel the chance to flex her portrait-drawing skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t drawn for a long time, although I went to art school,\u201d she said, \u201cso he really kind of stirred it up again for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colorful
Children’s drawings were on display at the Taco Bell on Broadway in Long Beach on Aug. 16, 2023. Photo by Alicia Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The online meetings helped keep the club alive and grow it, Nick Zegel said, but members were eager to meet in person once it was safe. While they waited for Taco Bell to reopen its patio, they brought their pads and pens to the bluff and sat on the lawn to draw.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re firmly planted back at the Broadway restaurant, an unassuming location that\u2019s an integral part of the club\u2019s aesthetic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe barrier to entry is very low,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not pretentious, and in fact, I love when friends come by who may not draw, and they make a drawing \u2013 and all of a sudden on that given night, like, they are an artist and a member of our drawing club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find art created by club members and announcement of upcoming meetings at the Taco Bell Drawing Club’s Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anywhere from half a dozen to 20 people usually show up for the club\u2019s meetings, which are announced on social media, and more than 100 people have drawn together since the club was formed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":76580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[161,137],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32180],"class_list":["post-76578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-art","tag-tacos","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76589,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76578\/revisions\/76589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76578"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=76578"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=76578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}