The digital age has permeated every aspect of modern culture, and that includes the arts. No one knows this better than Regan Dunnick, who watches students in his illustration courses at the Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD) favor digital over the trusted sketchbook.

“We’re trying to get the kids to use more sketchbooks to draw,” Dunnick said. “I work in a sketchbook all the time, and the show is trying to inspire kids to draw more traditionally.” 

The "show" he refers to is Dunnick's one-man show, appropriately titled, Why, Yes. My Sketchbooks are for Work and Pleasure, which will features sketches from the past two years of both personal and professional drawings. The sketches will be hyper local; he’ll even feature work that he’s done for Sarasota Magazine, where he's been a longtime illustration contributor. 

While Dunnick wants to make sure people crack a smile at his work, which is often humorous, he also hopes that the show will contribute to an important cause.

Proceeds of all of the prints that are sold will go towards a donation to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in honor of his wife, Debbie, who recently passed away.

“I was going to have a show anyway,” Dunnick says. “After she passed, everybody said, ‘Why don’t you push the show off to later?’ but I think it was a good thing to go ahead with it, because during that time it kept me busy.”

The opening reception will take place at 5 p.m., Sept. 7 at the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation Gallery at 2495 Old Bradenton Road, Sarasota and the show will run until the end of the month.