The 10th Annual Monster Drawing Rally took off on March 5 at the Verdi Club as a group of artists demonstrated their skills in front of hundreds of attendees.

Hosted by Southern Exposure, a non-profit organization run by artists, the event seemed like a very unique gallery expo with the room filled to its capacity and hundreds of drawings lined up on the wall.

The artists volunteered their time and artwork in support of Monster Drawing Rally. They all sat at the center of the room and took an hour to make the pieces before rotating out of their seat for another artist. The crowd gathered and watched what artists would usually do in the privacy of their own studio.

Rodney Ewing, 45, has been painting and doing various works of art for 25 years. For this event, he used letter stencils and graphite to paint a poem as his art piece.

"The painting showed five seconds in time, and it took me an hour to do," Ewing said. "I call this art 'A Moment In Time' because we all share that linear piece of time."

Jamie Venci, 27, started off as an intern for Southern Exposure before becoming a full-time staff member. She said the Monster Drawing Rally started off as a side event for a different fundraiser event years back. Now it has evolved to the biggest fundraising event for Southern Exposure.

According to Venci, all the money made is going to art education programs and exhibitions provided by Southern Exposure.

Kirsten Harkonan, an intern for Southern Exposure, took less than two months to put together the 120 artists and their time slots for this event.

"It was a smooth transaction," Harkonan said. "Artists were pretty eager to participate in this event."

"What is different this year is that we tried to put as many new artists as possible," Venci said.

Many parents also brought their children to see how different artists create their art pieces.

"There are more kids than last year," said Kelsey Nicholson, the curator of the event. Nicholson also brought her adolescent son, Walker Johnson, along.

Many of the attendees were artists themselves.

"This event is pretty nerve-racking," said Naphtalie Rodriguez, an artist that was just attending. "But I'll still do it."

David Hamill participated as an artist in Monster Drawing Rally a few years back. This year, he decided just to be a spectator.

"I can just hang back and watch others do the work," Hamill said.

And the event was a pressure cooker for the artists, as hundreds of people watched on while they created. On top of that, artists only had an hour to finish their work.

"It holds you to your skill," said artist Andres Guerrero. His work for the event was cutting money into small pieces and making a mosaic.

Vanessa Marsh created a pop-art piece, which portrayed animals over a green pasture. She has been participating with different Southern Exposure events for the last few years.

"Southern Exposure really succeeded in reaching out and making the art community great with this event," Marsh said.

Amanda Ault, the associate director of Southern Exposure, estimated about 1000 artists and art supporters attended the event.

Ault said the event was "a big success."

No word from Southern Exposure on how much money the event raised.