Friday Spill: Personal History…Desk Moving

Personal History…Desk Moving

I’m not sure how other cartoonists feel about moving their desks (their work areas) around their homes. My impression, from visiting colleagues over the years is that they find a spot and stay put. That hasn’t been my experience though. Since moving into this house, more than thirty years ago, I’ve traveled four times, from room to room, with the latest move just the other day. I was on a podcast recently and mentioned I might decamp, and wouldn’t you know it: just a few weeks later I did.

For most of the time in this house I worked in the former laundry room. Finally running out of space, I left all that behind and headed to the living room, where my desk was right in the middle of the action. From where I sat I saw an open room in front of me, with a lone cartoon at the far wall (an Alice Harvey drawing from the March 20, 1926 New Yorker). Not long ago I realized I had a desire to be closer to the room that has the most cartoons on the walls (and at rest on various surfaces). Here’s what I see now as I look to the left of where I sit. 

Not quite visible resting on the chair is a Helen Hokinson that appeared in The New Yorker, June 9, 1928 — it was part of a series, “Library Fauna.” On the piano is a Barbara Shermund piece (non- New Yorker, dated sometime in the 1930s). On the wall, from left to right: a Peter Arno rough, an Ed Arno non-New Yorker drawing– yes, the two Arnos together at last! Then a Robert Weber New Yorker drawing (June 15, 1998), and finally a Sam Gross drawing (non-New Yorker). To the left, there’s a gathering of work you can’t really make out, but they are: another Alice Harvey drawing (published in The New Yorker October 24, 1925), a Peter Steiner New Yorker drawing (published February 3, 1992), another Barbara Shermund, a drawing by George Booth, and a New Yorker drawing by Ed Steed (it appeared April 15, 2019). 

By the way, this last wall mentioned is where I originally had my desk the first time I set up a work space, a few days after we moved in, in the late 1980s.  The desk was exactly where the dictionary stand is now. Back then I faced south, looking at the wall. Now I’m a few feet east of that space, looking north, back to the wall.