Drawing.  We relate to our world visually but many lack the ability to see and understand a lot of what is all around us.  Drawing is as essential as language and mathematics.  We dream largely in images, less so in words and numbers.  Drawing is a visual ability, analytical process and communication skill.  In the end it is the one final human activity that may not be mechanized or automated (I wonder…)

The first half of drawing is seeing.  Seeing is really a doorway to greater empathy.  We think we see just fine, we don’t.  As you learn to see better your drawing and writing skills will grow.  Perhaps there’s also a similar relationship with listening and music.

I believe anyone can learn to draw a reasonable picture, but only with some practice and, if they enjoy the process (that’s a big if, because it’s a little work at first.)  It’s easy and natural with children because it’s not a completive activity.   With some basic skills, a bit of effort and a little coaching, it’s definitely possible to create interesting even beautiful pictures.  Teaching other folks to see and draw is a pleasant challenge.  Helping folks to enjoy the process may be impossible.  Just one of those things – some like it, some don’t…  So I concentrate on trying to make it easy – but just north of boring – and fun.  

Diluting the taste of the inevitable (and necessary) mistakes, running alongside, hoping they can get going fast enough on their drawing bicycle to stay upright and start to pedal on their own before I let go. I’m still learning how to do that.   So far I’ve found that only a few students (seniors) who enjoy the process enough to willingly displace other enjoyable activities in their lives with drawing.  I hope I can improve those odds.  

We’ll see.

Along the way, I’ve met an author, YouTube teacher and artist, Danny Gregory.  He has a powerful message that I have adopted, “It’s not the picture, it’s the drawing.”  Not the product but the process.  Drawing is an activity like meditation, woodworking, knitting, gardening, etc. that keeps your thoughts in the present, not in the past, or the future.  One result is that we experience a more powerful awareness of the world around us.  We experience beauty and understanding on a higher level.

I knew growing up that I loved to draw.  Now, I have a deeper understanding of why.

My Spring 2019 course: Every Picture Tells a Story: Writing Memoirs From Family Photographs is a renewing and enjoyable exercise.  Turns out you actually have to write the story that each photo holds and good writing is challenging.  Photos, smells and music have a magical way of re-flooding our minds and feelings with times gone by – nostalgia for sure, but real memoir food.  Best of all, our wonderful instructor (and class) were willing to tolerate my quirkiness.

My tribute to pal Nelson Sartoris is presented here.  (Bugle music…)

Nelson is Part of My Silhouette

by Bill LaRocque

As a portrait artist, I’ve learned that the outline of a subject has to be done right.  It’s a big part of how we recognize each other. We are shaped by our surroundings. Each outline or silhouette exists only within the defining negative shapes that surrounds it.

I cannot describe myself without understanding how I was and am shaped by others around me.  But this is not about me.

I have been supported, challenged, and inspired by some and gut punched by others.  It’s all there in my silhouette. By the time you get white hair, you’re all done growing and changing for good, bad or meh, that’s pretty much it?  Right? Nope.

I was formed by my good parents, partners, family and friends, teachers, sargeants, coaches and supervisors, artists and scientists and even politicians.  And I haven’t forgotten the bullies and bandits, tyrants and lackeys. Somewhere in that mix is me… I think.

Retirement provides time to pause and reflect.  As a consequence a lot of old men are grumpy. Our diminished physical abilities, hearing, and memory are not who we were.  Many don’t talk very much or easily share our feelings. That may be a mistake…

Retiring to Asheville and OLLI a dozen years ago I left a career where I was surrounded increasingly by millennials.  Now, I found a community of folks about my age, still smart, creative and engaged.

There was one grouchy old coot I took a liking to right away.  He spoke up in the classes, was well informed, cynical and funny.  When we were able share a few personal details, I was surprised. He was an academic, whom I would normally avoid, but in chemistry, my undergraduate major.  We both appreciated Darwin and had little patience for religion. We admired many of the same OLLI instructors and liked mexican food and a beverage or two.

Then, about five years ago he started to write poetry.  Ha ha. Seriously.

Many of his pals at our geezer school (all literate and creative) were encouraging him, but very little rhymes with N-phos-phon-omethyl-glycine, OK, “drag queen” or “string bean” do but that doesn’t make any sense.  So, he took on other topics: culture, laments, aging, god, reveries and mortality to name a few.  

His beloved mom was nearing her centennial milestone and he wanted to, at long last, impress her.  So he set about the major task of publishing a book of his verse. No, not a blog, not a long e-mail or Facebook post, something she could hold in her hand.

Three years ago, he did it.  He reinvented himself as a sensitive, articulate, witty, parnassian published scribe all without losing his grumpy side.  His mom glowed and his friends rejoiced. Nelson smiled, with eyes a little moist. (OMG, some of that rhymes…)

Here’s what he taught me.  There’s a fascinating artist within us all.  Often as a child, that creative being is caged and assaulted with cruel remarks.  But it’s still there, alive. As a flower can suddenly bloom when nurtured and inspired, the most wonderful stories, paintings, music, quilts, or coq au vin are created to admire,  (Yikes, not again?)

Nelson stays informed by reading hardcover books, the New York Times, and by sitting under a tree and watching as slowly birds reappear and start to sing and the fronds of friendly ferns unfurl.  He knows almost all the bird species names. I just know their given names: Pete and Marjorie, Karen and Scout. Acid or base, balding or gout, happily, there’s no topic we can’t banter about. (Last rhyme.  It’s Miller time.)

Short Attention Span Seniors  – I get it.  That was a little long to read.  Here are some nice pictures of Nelson as a lad and way past full grown.  Chairman of the Chemistry department is now a poet, for real.

ALSO! His second book is even verse than his first and available on Amazon.  I did the illustrations.

The hilarious story (above) that you just skipped reading is now posted on the Internet – your grandkids can help you find it. https://boomrbill.com/

More, Better. I think technology (creative inventiveness) and humor (the olive oil and garlic of life) enable our survival. Two heroes, Bill Gates and Dave Barry both recap way better than I.

I wrote a long summary about a week ago that, upon rereading, was so tedious and sniveling, I deleted it. I’m very happy to have been granted another year and to have spent it with my wonderful partner, SAM. For all my complaints (don’t get me started) I’m a lucky bloke, but my seat belt is fastened… I’ll leave it at that.

Thankful. I enjoy and am nourished by my men’s group brothers and our weekly discussions, my drawing, wood crafts and occasional writing, and especially our UNCA and AACC classes – both participating and leading.

Last year’s river cruise was a luxurious learning experience through the center of Europe. Also, I collaborated with one of my best pals to illustrate a beautiful collection of his poems that are both fun and profound at the same time.  Plug (Amazon link to On Wings of Words)

So welcome, 2019!  We could use some better news this year (and you know what I mean.)  Looking forward to Trump’s resignation, 5G, Star Wars IX, The Webb Space Telescope, a hair growth lotion, and going fishing.   

Thanks for stopping by and reading all the way down to here. Some pics below…

Group Hug

One of the best parts of retirement and my slow mental and physical decline is the men’s group I joined after moving to Asheville.  Men don’t group together and talk very much (school sports teams don’t count.)   We’re too busy competing and improving the species.  Women share and communicate often.  Men not so much.

I’m aware that other old guys do get together regularly for social occasions and enjoy swapping stories and giving organ recitals (complaints about our many ailments.)  Not the same.  So thank you Chuck Fink for organizing, nurturing and inspiring our groups.  And thanks also to Buck Bragg for serving as our gentle leader.  Both of these gents are modest and avoid any testimonials of gratitude.  Don’t worry guys, no one reads these postings…

Gallimaufry. 

Getting somewhere?

A talented artist can say a lot in a short time.  Steve Cutts (gifted UK artist and animator) produced a video called “Happiness” that can be seen from this  link.   https://vimeo.com/244405542   A masterpiece IMO.

Songs/poetry, dance, sculpture and graphic arts – painting to cartoons – tell stories quickly and memorably.  Stories with humor can lubricate the great lessons of life – artistic olive oil.

And, I love a big satisfying biography.  They’re like blankets of the past to warm and teach us.  Yarns of Peoples lives cross each other to form pieces of cloth that are formed into big quilts.  I know, there are holes and patches of imagination, but life stories from generous authors tell me more than summaries of nations, wars and economics.

Mr Franklin is the person I would most like to meet, when time travel is perfected and economical.

Holiday season in the western world.  Nostalgia can be heavy and sometimes sad at this time of year.  Best advice is to make someone else happy – bake a cake, send a note, shovel a walk.

Hey, whats coming next?  We barely understand our past and don’t pay enough attention to the present.  Still, we can’t wait for tomorrow.

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” (William Gibson)  So is the past (still with us) IMO.

In 2001 I joined an organization of largely theme park and party caricaturists in hopes of sharpening my skills in cartoony portraits for editorial cartoons.  At their annual week-long event the members drew and entertained each other and filled the walls of a hotel ballroom with hundreds of comic exaggerated portraits. I was overwhelmed and a bit shy about my meager abilities.  The members didn’t seem to care. Each year I returned, excited to learn and practice and I soon met fascinating artists from all over the US and a few from Europe and Asia as well.

In 2005 I did a solo RTW and finished up in Malaga Spain at a “mini-con” of caricature artists from Europe and all over the world – for me a life event.  That’s another story. Soon after retiring from my day job,I attended another, somewhat larger, midi-con in Tokyo. It was another unforgettably rich experience.  By now I had met some of the great caricaturists of the world  Most are still in touch. Travel had become a major enriching experience for me and I always carried my sketchbook.

As years passed there were things about the caricaturist organization and events I appreciated and a few things I did not.  Since I did not volunteer to help fix the issues, I remained a loyal and quiet participant. It’s always easy to complain.  As many of my friends began to stop attending, moving on with their lives, the events became less interesting to me. So this year, I decided to say “goodbye.”

Not easy…

Creatively, there’s still a world of wonderful faces still to draw, cartoons to create, and illustration gigs to keep me very happy and busy.  Teaching continues (and for SAM too) to be rewarding and challenging.

Best to finish here before my eyes start to leak...

too late.

In N’awlins for the 62nd Reubens a day early.  About 120 of us had signed up for a day as “Voluntourists” as the Habitat folks called us, to lend a hand with some of their projects in the post-Katrina, St. Bernard neighborhood.  Two buses were waiting for us at 7am at our hotel on Canal street for the 35 minute drive past endless abandoned single family homes and gutted strip malls.  Camp Hope (Habitat HQ) is where organizations from all over the world (beyond FEMA) come and are briefed and assigned to their 50 or so projects. NCSers: Jeff Bacon, Ron and Max Evry, Ed Black, Jeff and Melinda Keane, 

Mike Peters, Hillary Price, Tom and Anna Richmond, Brian Walker, Mike Mikula and many many more joined in this day to shingle and put up siding.  Hammers, nails, and one-liners – being a part of something larger – cartoonists working cooperatively.  An unforgettable day. 

Five of us worked as a “siding unit” and did so well we were dubbed the “Alpha” Team.  Later, at the hotel, after showers we reunited at the opening reception. Here are (left to right) Don Peoples, Elaine Bernside, Bill Schorr, Aileen Heimlich and moi.   We completed the roof and finished about 3/4ths of the siding.

The story here is the quiet stream of volunteers that are coming to help rebuild this unique city.  This is a truly American response. We all were depressed by the devastated neighborhoods, seeing the doors, quickly painted with “X”s with grim #s to count the dead, and the likelihood that it will happen again.  Still, some residents are returning and rebuilding.

What was a major surprise, returning to the hotel we filed off our bus through a gauntlet of applause and thanks from hotel staff and NCSers.   It wasn’t needed. We all felt very thankful already. This experience, and the Habitat organization will not be forgotten.

For more great coverage of this event see Tom Richmond‘s posting (link here.)  BTW, Tom won the Advertising and Illustration category award this year.  Steve Silver, another NCNer, won for TV Animation.  Bill Schorr (one of the Alpha team) won for editorial 

cartoons!  One of my great heroes and pal, Richard Thompson also attended and we had a good talk about the NCS and cartooning art.  Folks were just beginning to appreciate his genius.

10 years later, still a very warm feeling…

River Cruise, Summary

Travelling on a boat. This was our first river cruise.  Geezer friends had reported great experiences and so we were anxious to see if touring without the almost daily suitcase rituals of land tours was worth the larger costs.  No one mentioned low water levels. More in a minute… Skip ahead if you know what a river cruise is like.

A river cruise liner/ship is a long narrow floating hotel on its side with a big windowed dining area, a cocktail lounge a sun deck and miscellaneous common areas for activities. Our Uniworld River Princes was very (3.5 star) nice in all categories including our “cozy” rooms.  Unexpected was the level of service. With about 1 staff per 3 passengers (it felt the other way around) we were fully pampered. Dining was elegant with each meal consisting of a very wide selection of delicious and even healthy foods.  Wine and beer and grown-up drinks were refilled continuously without any extra charges. Three meals a day, some four-courses (that you are forced to eat) added 3 lbs in 2 weeks. Everyday had a selection of tours to local towns, farms or sights and a variety of effort levels from “gentle” walking to 20K bike excursions. All the time we slowly made our way through scenic valleys of Riesling vineyards, great castles, abbeys and cathedrals and Bavarian forests.  

Where’s the Pictures? Your much awaited short video slide show is posted at:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo6iN9zNXS4  (3 minutes)

Warmer climates produced lower Danube river levels and our boat was unable to sail past Passau, Germany.  Just 5 centimeters more water…  So we packed up and bused to Vienna, Austria for two days and then Budapest, Hungary for a day. Not too bad, but we were already so spoiled – we were disappointed.

What I/we learned.  For us a big part of travel is the folks we meet from around the world.  Our tours are usually populated mostly by English speaking retired folks from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, etc.  We had a lot of interesting discussions and much laughter. Largely the view of our President was an incompetent, immoral, dangerous man.  We had to wear bags on our heads. Mostly we moved on to other topics.

Alert, personal opinions follow.  (Actually it’s all personal and most of you know where I stand and if you’re still reading, thanks.)  I remember moving to NC and being surprised at the frequent mention of the War of Northern Aggression.  On our trip through Germany we heard frequent mention of the 30-years War (1618-1648.) Huh? 

Maybe it was just the selection of tour stops, but the two images most memorable to me are the total destruction from WW II (now rebuilt at great cost to the citizens of both sides) and the vast wealth of the church, also born by the citizens.  

Imagine. If half of that money had been spent on their welfare and education, what a different world we would enjoy.

It’s no wonder we have revolutions…

Amsterdam, Germany and Austria and Hungary too (to a lesser extent) are well organized (they love their rules,) clean and doing very well on their respective roads to sustainable energy. They give their citizens better benefits and pay higher taxes, if you ignore our costs of our private health insurance.

Didn’t see many US cars, but good old McD’s and Starbucks were everywhere. 

Our world-wide rep is slipping…

It was an easy drive up to Philadelphia for the 72nd Reuben Awards Weekend of the National Cartoonists Society, NCS — sort of the academy awards for graphical humor. This was my 19th year — as much a fan as a participant — hanging out with heroes and friends who mostly create the newspaper comic pages, editorial cartoons, Mad Magazine and the New Yorker.  

This year my son, Chon, came along for the first time with his friend Lora.  SAM has been coming for 8 years, surviving the daily cocktail parties, bar room gatherings, dinners, afternoon seminars, and the big dress-up awards dinner. Lots of jokes and thank you speeches and a few tears. Some drew at the nearby Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and others participated in a public event at the in-town Library (book signings, caricature, answering questions and cartooning.)  SAM’s daughter and family joined us as well. A very nice weekend for the family.

The NCS and the traditional cartooning profession and artists are rapidly changing with the loss of a paper-based market.  Folks still love cartoons, but we now obtain our information and entertainment from the Internet, mostly for free. As the market has changed so has the NCS and this event, not in happy directions, IMO.  The founding masters are essentially all gone.  Some of the greats of the past 50 years are still around and a few attend, but most do not.  There doesn’t seem to be a steam of new younger cartoonists joining because the traditional newspaper and magazine markets are drying up.  Happy to finally see more Internet cartoonists and caricaturists being admitted, but it’s just not like Europe where cartoon artists are more valued.  Maybe the ComicCons have just usurped the energy and the changed the meaning of dressing up.

Things change, they come and go.  Happy to have been part of a wonderful parade and to have met some many titanic talents like Nick Meglin (L) and Arnold Roth (R)

(sad note, dear Nick died suddenly just after the event)

Hero Mike Peters (L) who is such a happy spirit and Tom Richmond (R, with the lovely Anna) who has taught me so much.

Next year in Huntington Beach, CA — something different?

Overall, my feelings for  2017 are sad.  Donald Trump is no longer just a narcissistic clown, a policy lightweight, and a bad dream, he’s a threat to life on earth.  He is also not really a champion for many sound conservative positions that were held by his earlier supporters.  My take-aways from all this are to listen more, to insist in civility and to encourage everyone to vote.  Not outraged enough?  I’m way past that.  Pithy enough?

My biggest joy has been school.  Taking and giving classes at UNCA/OLLI.

SAM finally gave in and put together two of her great talents – a lifelong career in teaching and gifts for watercolor painting.  Her first class was first class.  Her students were encouraged and enriched by her lessons.  She’s a natural.

The class I gave on caricature was really an excuse to have some fun while doing basic portraiture which can be a little challenging.  The participants were a happy, talented group.  Teach and you will be be taught.

Took a seminar class led by hero Mary Lasher on solving important social problems.  Another course, Big History was a formidable insight – a new way of organizing what we already know and invites new ways to think about the “big picture.”  It’s an enormous, cold, lifeless universe… and yet, in spite of entropy, here we are (if we don’t screw it up.)

SAM organized a nice trip to Bucks County, PA with old pals from college days.  I learned a lot.

Recently, in her subscription journal Maria Popova posted a memorable thought piece on the past year.  LINK  Hope she doesn’t mind.

Looking forward to 2018, a positive elder thought, advice to moi: dance while the music is still playing,  enjoy our good fortune while we still can, and unbox our thinking.  SAM’s on the right track.  I’m a very lucky guy.

Each year we mail out cards we create (a diminishing practice.)  Below is this year’s poster.  All our best to you.  Thanks for stopping by..

It’s really all about tools.  One of my favorite artists, Thomas Eakins, was fascinated by new technology and would have loved to paint on a computer (I believe.)    Great computer art still needs a great artist.  The best omelette pan can still burn eggs.

I’d been drawing cartoons and caricatures since 1958 in high school.  Then, in 1968 in the  USAF, working the midnight shift as a computer operator I mapped out and then keypunched a printed pattern of Xs that produced an image of Snoopy on a $5 million mainframe.  Sparky forgive me.  General Curtis LeMay never knew.

Meanwhile for the next 30 years I continued to draw cartoons on 2-ply Bristol with a variety of pens and brushes.  I dabbled with watercolor, pastels and colored pencils loving every minute.  Slowly I learned (still doing that…)

Over my shoulder, computers were getting smaller, faster and cheaper.  Then, one of those “ah hah” moments came when Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC and saw a mouse.  He understood the possibility of a whole new way of communicating/directing a computer.  Digital graphics were soon born.

Fast forward.  We now have relatively inexpensive touch sensitive digital screens sitting above software that can mimic an entire art supplies store.  Painting with instant undo and no cleanup.  Amazing, wonderful, but still just a tool.

There is still a steep learning curve and a boatload of technology and new jargon.  For peeps and many millennials that hill is not too hard to climb.  For mature practicing artists there’s really no urgent  reason to invest their time.  That leaves me and 8 or 9 others to adjust our heads and make room for layers, opacity, lasso-selects and pdf files.

The software we learned first (photoshop) was a combination cathedral pipe organ with 4 keyboards and 300 stops and the the cockpit of a Boeing 747.  Expensive, lots of power, and a bit daunting to learn.  Yes there are simpler packages to use, but they are more limited in what they can produce,  Like a small box of crayons.

Right now I’m seeing a new generation of software, or apps as they’re now called, that greatly simplifies the digital screen/pad dashboard or interface (shudder.)  Some may remember the original TV’s had a lot of knobs for adjustments that are no longer needed, like vertical hold, similar idea.  Good word processors have gone this route by putting the most common functions out front and burying the less needed ones a few clicks down.

It’s called  the U/I or user interface.  I still wince at terms like that.  Look at a watercolor artist’s studio painting area and you’ll see paper, a paint palette, brushes, water bucket, cloth and maybe a hair dryer.  Then there’s a ton of other stuff nearby but less handy.  This is happily the direction of the generation of apps, making them easier to learn and use.   Photoshop’s U/I is still a 747 dashboard.  Procreate and Infinite Painter are minimalist.

So training/learning is crucial.  Gone are the days when software came with user guides.  Today it’s a help tab or community comment sites, even Google can hook you up with answers to weird questions.  Youtube, the university of everything, is also a terrific source of narrow topic training.  Here’s a well deserved plug for a digital artist, critic, teacher and smart-ass, Brad Colbow: Link  He has his own channel for digital artist nerds.

So, I promised to make  this short.  Virtually all the artwork I’ve produced for publication in the past 7 years has been digital.  Samples are found elsewhere in this journal.  And still I persist, always carrying an analog drawing journal and a ballpoint because I love the feel of low-tech paper and a non-erasable pen.

You might be wondering about digital art’s durability.  I don’t.  99% of all art produced is not durable regardless of medium.  So who cares?  The 1% worthy of future audiences will find a way to endure in museums.

Meanwhile, enjoy what we have.