Precious and few...

First of all, "L'Shanah Tovah!," or "Happy New Year" to all the "tribe" and those who love and care for them. For anyone who actually read the drivel I compose here and has no idea of what this is about--it's Jewish New Year.

Years ago, my mother was a beautician. She once told me I ought to consider being a male beautician because of the money I could make. Oh, I'd be made fun of for sure, with every gay joke, reference, and innuendo that could be made. But she also told me I'd laugh all the way to the bank. This actually has a point, as I'd like to begin to conclude the mini-vacation I took with my wife a week or so back.

The Friday we were to head back to KC we took a morning trip to the "Precious Moments" Chapel, which is outside of Carthage, MO. My wife drug her feet a bit on going thinking the whole thing would be "lame." As it ended up, I had to drag her(figuratively) out of the gift shop so we could head home! I'm sure that PM has its share of detractors. Most "serious" artistes would use words like "kitsch" or "pedestrian" in description. After all, true "artists" aren't suppose to do such things. I got a good dose of that in art school, as guys like Norman Rockwell were looked down on. And the true snobbery takes place by denigrating the audience, or customers, for PM. Similar to those who criticize Jeff Foxworthy for playing to the "Walmart crowd." Maybe so, but like Foxworthy, PM and Sam Butcher(the PM creator) probably laugh all the way to the bank. Or just don't care. Why should they? Maybe they've learned to appreciate those who like what they do, and ignore those that don't. It's what I need to learn to do. We'll start the mini-tour with a fountain that greeted us at the Visitors' Center...

The gardens there were beautiful and peaceful. It was nice to just walk around, see the flowers, enjoy the day, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Finally we came upon the Chapel...

The inside of the Chapel contained artwork done by Sam Butcher and in the PM style(of course). Here's one of the big panels at the back of the Chapel...It had a very high ceiling. Butcher wanted to emulate what had been done at the Sistine Chapel...

The artwork was divided into scenes from the Tanakh(sorry...I don't like the term "old testament") and from the Messianic Writings(same distain for term "new testament"). This is from the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price...

Outside the Chapel were more grounds with a lake and a "castle"...Butcher made sure there was a cave on the grounds, so to have a place to commemorate the resurrection of the Christ. It's way off in the background of this pic......and here's a close-up with a PM "angel" to signify that He is risen, and not in the "tomb"...

In the gift shop were all sorts of things to buy, including what seemed to be a "'round the year" Christmas store. And huge statuary. Here's one with my wife to give scale. She's about 6', so you get an idea of how large this piece is... Here's Sam Butcher's bust... And another fountain as we were leaving...

I can't fault Butcher for finding something that works for him. It's not an uncommon formula or structure to the PM characters. It's been used before similarly in children's books and by Warren Kremer and the Harvey artists on Casper, Richie Rich and the like. All of them are very round and "child-like." I guess in conclusion, I admire what he has accomplished, but need to find my own "thang."

And tomorrow, I'll conclude with pics of Butcher's other stuff, a rare photo op as he was there that day, and some thoughts on what I may need to do to get myself started again.

Be good!

Every garden has a snake...

Technically, it IS tomorrow, and the anniversary of the second day of Creation. Now on with the pontificating...

I can take kitschy "Halloween." As an occurrance during the year and its appearance in the fall, its a great time. Horror movies generally don't bother me. I love the classic Universal monster movies, and still can't decide if I am more in the "Hammer" camp or "AIP" camp when it came to horror movies of the '60's and '70's. If you ask me, I blame the crop of "sympathetic" vampires, such as Anne Rice's, the Buffy tv show, and the current fascination with "Twilight" squarely at Dan Curtis and Art Wallace. Barnabas Collins was supposed to be a villain and would not be on the show for long. Staked and gone, on a show headed for cancellation. But Jonathan Frid became a daytime television heart-throb, and the show writers had to find some way to keep him, hence the "vampire with a conscience." BID.

Casper, Spooky, HotStuff--they were just neat little characters drawn by Warren Kremer and others for Harvey. When I decided I wanted to work in comics, one of my goals was to draw HotStuff. Sabrina was just a kooky witch at family-friendly Archie Comics. The EC stuff and early Warren mags were just "cool." I adored Burton's "Sleepy Hollow," and thought Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" was a pornographic orgy of over-the-top violence. Nothing more than a glorified snuff film. (You can imagine how well that plays with the evangelical church crowd.) My favorite movie is "The Wizard of OZ."

Oh, and I'm drawing up a caricature piece based on some of the kids at Worlds of Fun I work with. Here it is as a rough sketch...Somehow, this has helped me to get back to drawing.

So now the segue to our Carthage, MO trip...In my last post, I outlined the basics of our trip to south Missouri. All in all, Carthage was very peaceful, and my wife loved a lot about that community. We did find out that meth is a problem there, but most communities, large and small, have some kind of substance abuse going on. It's just a reality.

The people were friendly, the food at the restaurants was good(I heartily suggest eating at Iggy's Diner, by the way--wonderful burgers!) and it reminded me of all those movies from the past where small town life was good, decent, and wholesome. Lots of antique stores, as well. And in them was lots of Americana, religious stuff, etc. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled on to this...Needless to say, it stuck out like a sore thumb. The store owners were kind and let me photograph it. It had a $2400 price tag. Here's what the footings of the box looked like...Creepy, eh? Here's some more pics, with details of the frontaspiece and face...

I told my wife I'd found something creepy, but I wanted to see if she could find it herself. She did, and was stunned, too. Moreover, the most sour faced woman I'd ever seen seemed to be skulking around her when she went back for a closer look. Let me describe her as I was not smart enough to sneak a picture of her--she was dress "Amish" style with the apron, bonnet, etc. But not in the Amish black/gray motif. She was dressed in reds. I'm sure someone out there will correct me that she wasn't out of the ordinary, but she disturbed me more than that antique clock!

We told the sponsor lady at the library about this, but she wasn't surprised. Maybe there are more than realized who put on the conservative, church-going facade, yet go dancing naked, or chanting in druid robes, in the moonlight. Nor am I damning Carthage. I'm just reminded of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Browne."

Nor is KC that great. Since we've lived in KC, there've been at least 2 serial killers caught--Bob Berdella and John Robinson--not to mention BTK in Wichita, KS. And up the road about an hour from us is Chillicothe, MO where an old couple were killing off migrant farm workers. Now you know why I titled this "Every garden has a snake." Sometimes plural.

Next up...a positive as I show some stuff from the Precious Moments Chapel...

a short trip...

My wife and I took a "mini-vacation" last week to Carthage, MO. I was scheduled to do a cartooning workshop at the local library, and thought it would make a great excuse to get out of town.

I didn't know much about Carthage. Doing some digging, I found out it's the home to my favorite salad dressing, "Otts." It also was the site of an important Civil War battle, and is on "historic" Route 66. The Precious Moments Chapel is there, too, and we stayed at the Precious Moments Hotel.

The library is one of the few remaining Carnegie libraries still in active use. And there was a great garden area around it with statuary. Here's one to "Alice in Wonderland"...This one is to Marlin Perkins of "Wild Kingdom" fame, who was born in Carthage...

The inside of the library still had the original decoration and columns......and a great domed ceiling...

All in all, it seemed like a view of real "Americana," and probably very right-wing, righteous, and Republican. Lots of huge churches of every flavor. Lots of history and community pride. And great big houses my wife fell in love with. I wish I could make it back for their "Maple Leaf" Festival, but I don't think that's happening this year.

Sorry for no drawings today. Probably not tomorrow, either. But I will have pics of "a snake in the garden" as I continue with our trip log, and lastly a mini-essay on our visit to the Precious Moments Chapel the day after. Then some drawings, I promise.

PS--Today also corresponds to Elul 25 on the Jewish calendar, and is considered by many Rabbis as the anniversary of Creation. If you are unsure of what I'm talking about, it begins with Genesis 1:1. "L'Shanah Tovah!"

Catching up...

Recently, I got into "Dexter." And I'm finding it enjoyable to sit down with a complete season and just watch it through, and not completely understanding why. I used to have shows I would plan my week around--kind of sad, really--but my wife and I have done things that way for years. In the '70's, it was "Night Stalker" when it was on. Later, "Dallas," "Me and the Boys," the "Dark Shadows" revival and the "X-Files" when it first started. In this decade, it's been crime shows such as "CSI" and "NCIS." But dvd's of full season have changed things. BID.

In season 2 of "Dexter" was a character called "Lila" played by actress, Jaime Murray.She played Lila deliciously wicked and evil, and I think it was a mistake for the producers to have "offed" her. It may have tied up a loose end for that season, but I'd have like for her to have been lurking to give Dexter some potential, future fits. Ah, well. Here's a quick sketch I did of her while watching an episode a while back.

I also did some quick sketches of Doakes and Deb, Dexter's sister...

Lastly, this was drawn of me by a fellow artist at Worlds of Fun, Stacie Batchelar...kinda has a "Halloween" feel to it.

Got to go...finishing up "The Tudors," season one. And is anyone else enjoying, "Fringe?"

crappy weather. IIICCCCKKKK!!!...

It really sucked at the park this past weekend. Just dismal with the weather being rainy. I guess we have "Ike" to thank.

I considering regrowing my "pornstache" and sideburns. Hopefully I won't look as creepy as I did a year ago. Probably will.

This artwork hangs in my studio proudly. It was done by the legendary Burne Hogarth.

And since this is supposed to be my "drawing blog," I should show something. And since I have done some Simpsons stuff for Bongo, at some point I get asked if I'd caricature someone as a Simpsons' character. Here's one of our airbrush artists, Brandon Arnold......and here's what I came up with...

More yet to come. Bye, now!

requests...

I generally hate most of the stuff I draw at the park. While I do a good job, it just doesn't seem comfortable. And I get a lot of ribbing about how I draw women, but the fact is that if I had an extra 10 spot for every time I got the "don't make me fat," " can you make my boobs bigger," "make me sexy,"comments...you get the idea...I'd have med school paid for and be a plastic surgeon. Call it the advise I got from Dan DeCarlo..."if you can draw a pretty girl, you're never out of work."

Christina had been wanting a caricature from me all season. And one day she cornered me and I had no excuse to put her off. She's going to be married soon and wanted something for the future husband so... Anyway, here's a pic of her and the caricature I did of her.

That particular day, it wasn't busy at all. Dead, in fact. All the caricature artists were having a hard time getting anyone interested in a caricature drawing. A tough day. So I sat down and had Christina sit for me and began drawing. And just as soon as I'm drawing something that I'd rather everyone ignore while I'm doing it, people began to stop. Lots of chuckles, smirks, "Omigod's!" and even some kid right on my shoulder gawking the whole time.

Rebecca wants a caricature, and I've told her for a couple of years that I'd rather do something nice instead of a park sketch. I would like to do something with a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" feel to it as she reminds me of Audrey Hepburn in many ways. I'm running out of excuses, so I began to do some preliminary sketches for a likeness. One of them turned out pretty close, so I may go with it. Here's Rebecca and what I've come up with.

Gotta keep drawing!

a sketch party...

Some of the other artists from Worlds of Fun got together for a sketch party this past Thursday. It was fun, getting some time to just draw, watch a movie, and hang. I have some stuff I drew from that party. The first "challenge" was to draw the person to our left as a zombie. This is Sam...

While warming up for the evening, I did some drawing on a "creature" for a webstrip that's rattled around the noggin for over 10/15 years.

We had a "fetish" challenge, but I don't have the sketch I did. The subject of that sketch, Stacie, wanted it. Besides, I don't think it would be appropriate for here. Although I may post some of the sketches done of ME for a laugh...maybe tomorrow!

The last "challenge" was one I didn't pay attention. Since the folks there all draw caricatures, we were to do a composite sketch of the 2 people to our left. I just drew 2 character designs based on Sam and Ben to my left. I like it enough to want to rework it into a more finished piece, and yes, I drew one arm disjointed. Nothing that can't be corrected in later development. Maybe I should do more with "Count Benula" and "Samgor?"

Have a good night!