“From Lines To Laughs: Women+ On Men” Exhibit Opens At the Society Of Illustrators
Opening today! An exhibit of work at The Society of Illustrators by the New Yorker artists listed below.
Sarah Akinterinwa, Lila Ash, Ellie Black, Hilary Campbell, Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly, Liana Finck, Emily Flake, Helen Hokinson, Amy Hwang, Amy Kurzweil, Maggie Larson, Sara Lautman, Roberta Macdonald, Elisabeth McNair, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Mary Petty, Victoria Roberts, Barbara Shermund, Ali Solomon, Bishakh Som, Julia Suits, Kim Warp
There will be a panel discussion on January 17th, moderated by the exhibit’s curator, Liza Donnelly. She’ll be joined by her colleague, Roz Chast and The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Editor, Emma Allen.
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Personal History…”My Greatest Drawing Ever”
Of the many things I’ve learned about being a cartoonist, I believe the second most important thing one needs to do is write it down.* “It” in this case is the idea that suddenly came to you while you were hosing down your dog or crossing the street (or, or, or…). There have been too many times over the years (but not so many that it’s a major issue) that a word or image comes my way and I neglect, just at that very moment, to write it down. It’s a weird feeling, just seconds after having the thought, of being unable to recall what the word was. Sometimes, just by looking at the drawings in front of me that I’ve been working on, I’m taken back to some instance of recognizing the lost word. But too often, the word is gone for good — just like a dream you woke up to but instantly forgot.
Strangely, I was never one for having a sketchbook at hand to record whatever should’ve been recorded. I did work in sketchbooks a long time ago (you see some of them in the photo below). But I didn’t sketch in them. Mostly, I drew finished looking cartoons in them, one cartoon after another. I eventually gave up working in the books because it made no sense to collect the drawings that way. It became a pain to haul the books to the copy center with certain drawings bookmarked to copy (the copies were then sent to The New Yorker).
You might be aware that my colleague, Roz Chast has a book out now titled I Must Be Dreaming. Her publisher’s pr text says that work in the book explores “the surreal nighttime world inside her (Roz’s) mind.” Writing down dreams, like keeping a sketchbook (for true sketching purposes), seems a wonderful thing to do, but for some reason, I never got into that mode. The dreams I remember are almost always the dreams I want to forget. But for Ms. Chast, what works works (“whatever works” was a fave go-to of the late great New Yorker cartoonist, Jack Ziegler whenever we discussed working on cartoons).
I do remember one dream that caused me to wake and grab a pen and paper. In waking I remember thinking that this was the greatest drawing I’d ever thought of, and that it had to be recorded or I’d certainly forget it by morning.
And so, when I finally awoke for the day, and remembered I’d had a great idea, I grabbed the scrap of paper. I’d drawn a fellow wearing a short order type cook outfit, standing by a deep fryer. He was holding a netted type thing that folks use in restaurants that they plunge into hot oil. Next to the man I’d written “fish fry.” A cartoon for the ages!
— Left: a recreation of the “my greatest drawing ever.”
Writing down on-the-go (so to speak. I’m not “going” anywhere) during the day, perfectly sums up the scattershot way my work day goes. There’s no plan, no pre-thought (barely any after-thought). I avoid getting trapped by manufactured ideas. Something comes in unannounced, and I write it down (or draw it if it’s an image that needs to be immediately drawn), and then, if that word or image glows a little, and seems to have promise, it becomes a cartoon.
* I believe the first most important thing, as I mentioned here not long ago, is showing up to work.