The Roadside Artist

Banned from public view! Banished to the nether regions. The cartoon that newspaper editors don’t want you to see…

Back story: The owner of the Anchor Inn in Oceanside Oregon has managed to enrage many by announcing that he’s turning his business into a strip club. Seems like good cartoon subject matter to me!

So I doodled one of my cartoons and sent it off to the Headless Herald.. I mean the Headlight Herald newspaper (Tillamook County). They’re real sensitive about the name. But the editor rejected it with just a note that “it wouldn’t be suitable for our purposes.”

Meaning what? It’s not funny? Too controversial? Someone might think you are for the strip club? Isn’t having a bit of edge supposed to be a critical part of an editorial cartoon?

Look, it’s funny. Well, I think it is funny, anyway. It doesn’t mean I think they should have a strip club in a town that small. Also, it’s TRUE - we have a lot of seasonal jobs, right? These would be …”different.”

In ANY case, running my cartoon would be more likely to make readers laugh than to make them think that the Headless…er, I mean Headlight Herald was promoting nudity.

Eh, whatever. I’m sure the editor will hate me now but I’m really not dissing him. I just wish he could have a little more courage. Maybe someone could explain that to him.

I may go drop a few copies here and there just to stir things up.

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This is a portrait of Christa, rendered in charcoal on regular drawing paper. Except for the use of drawing paper, this would be a bit more of a formal type of portrait sketch. I believe it shows a lot of personality and charcoal, because of its nature, will last far longer than any photograph.

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..It isn’t very long. For those interested, this artist’s birthday falls on July 12…pretty much every year, actually.

When we are very little, a birthday is the next best thing to Christmas. Well, for most of us anyway. After all, there are presents involved!

We become adults and birthdays are still nice, just not the world-shaking event they once were. We still get presents and some people think they have to be nicer to us than the rest of the time.

When you get to be my age, birthdays may or may not include presents. My sister will remember me, and have things for me - others may not. But it’s okay. Now birthdays have become a reminder of ones own mortality and how time is running out. But, as The Bob always says, “it beats the alternative.”

If I were to turn this into a piece of art, it wold be a dark room painted in bright colors.

If my birthday was a food item, it would be chocolate, semi-sweet.

If you want to give a gift - a needful thing - please look at my Amazon wish list

Or, for the art-oriented, you can save me! Visit my Dick Blick art supplies wish list!

Anything will be appreciated. And thank you for thinking of me.

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Eye scans show that artists tend to look at broader elements of a scene, with less concentration on the center items than ‘regular’ people. I’ve had this argument about how and what artists see as opposed to non-artists. It doesn’t meant that artists are better, just different.
Cognitive Daily: Artists look different

The fact is, I know I don’t see the world the way most people see it. Often, that is a disadvantage. You could even say that an artist is handicapped… sort of.

Like some artists, I don’t necessarily recognize faces all that well. If you didn’t study this, you might think that it would be the opposite, but artists look at a bigger picture, as the article explains

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