Caricature Express

This picture cracked me up.
Of course you can’t see it in the photo,
but while the girl was being drawn,
she kept pulling down her upper lip
(like a cartoon stereotype of a traditional ‘librarian’).
It caused her nose to get long and oval.
And her picture ended up looking like this -
so different from the face she’d see in the mirror.
So different from the face she thought was always there.

The Caricature came out so funny because I have to
keep moving at an event. I don’t really Know the people
who sit in front of me. I have to draw whatever happens
in the moment that I’m drawing each part. If the nose
is pulled long, it gets drawn long.

It amused me because I know that
this is just as much the likeness of this lovely girl
as the smiling pose in the photo is the likeness of this girl.
People might want to close their eyes
and think they’re only seeing the face that’s ’shown’ to the
world. But it’s all really there. Everything we do
is really us.

Reminds me of a story I had been told many years ago.
It described a young man named Leroy. Apparently,
Leroy had held up a liquor store at night. Even though
he was so thoughtful during the daytime. He had showered
and washed the dishes. Ran an errand for a sick friend.
Sent charity to a worthwhile organization. Yet the person
in the liquor store who faced the gun - that person knew
that Leroy was a criminal. And the person who owned the
liquor store - that person knew that Leroy was a thief.
Because Leroy was a criminal. Leroy was a thief.

In other words, just because a person does some things
that are good, it doesn’t mean she’s not a thief if she
also steals. And if a person looks calmly into the mirror
while she’s dressing, it doesn’t mean that she looks
the same way when she gets fidgety.

But it’s all okay. I like to think that I Face-Reality.
That I draw Face-Reality. That I can accept that
we all (certainly myself included) look funny.
Even when we think we’re looking glamorous.
Ever see a skull? What we all have inside?
Do we not see the shape of a table under a tablecloth?
Do we not see the skull under our muscles and makeup?

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

The way kids react to stuff. This Party, for instance.
They show up - ready to have a good time. So honest in their responses as to whether or not they’re having a good time. Tears pop out as readily as amazement. Wonder.

I guess it’s similar for Adults. We come to a party, a store, work - expecting to be appreciated, expecting to find stuff to enjoy. Wanting to be proud of ourselves. But perhaps adults are more reticent than kids? Deep down we’re still hoping, but we’re not so surprised when it doesn’t happen? Instead we’re so happily surprised each time it does happen? And perhaps we’re not as confident to express disappointments immediately - Perhaps we hang on to them until we finally choose to express them?

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

This is your life. Even if it rains. Your only chance to be 6-years old is when you’re 6-years old. Wouldn’t want to miss it just because it’s raining out.

That’s what happened at this Communion. I felt bad for the lovely woman who planned this beautiful outdoor party figuring that she’d have a beautiful May day. It was pouring outside. Even under our tent, the beautiful lawn became muddy.
The beautiful spring dresses. The white roses.
This was her daughter’s Special Day, and it rained.

My hostess graciously offered for me to set up inside. But it wasn’t quite that cold, and I preferred to be where the party was - where the Reggae band was - where the caterer had set up the bar….. So I braved the weather along with everybody else. This is your life - Can’t despair just because it rains:

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

Laugh at yourself ~

Admit it - The Human Form is Funny!
We tell ourselves that we have Beauty.
Or that we’re okay.
Or or that ‘nobody will notice’…..
But for what?

We’re all funny-looking. And we’re all beautiful.

We’re all funny-looking. And we’re all beautiful. And mostly, we are all skin stretched over skeletons – skeletons with those mandibles hopefully fully of rooted teeth – skeletons with those hard foreheads and occipital ridges.

Any face. With 2 holes smack in the middle.
And hard foreheads. And those choppers behind the lips.
And don’t get me started on
Ears….
Ever imagine the skull underneath? We are as much our skulls as
a painting of a tablecloth shows the form of the table beneath it.

I love you all.

This post continues what I was writing about on March 10, 2009.

What is sexy? My client said that her logo didn’t have to look like her, but it should look ’sexy’. “What does that mean?” I asked her. She said she would like me to draw long eyelashes and pouty lips. Here’s the picture I created for her guests to sign on the mat at her Launch Party. Along with the reference Photos that I was working from:

And here’s an extra picture that I sent - because my client suggested midway through the project that I color the skin brown. After we discussed it, she decided to give me free-reign to create the piece, but I played around with it anyway. There are so many decisions that an Artist can make.
So many different ways to express her visions:

The client said that she loved the drawing. But, she continued, “I have one request can you go a little easy on the lips for the one you are emailing me. Can they be more like I’m kissing someone!” (She had ordered two pictures. One to be displayed at the Party, and another to be used on her website and business-paraphenalia.)

“Oh!” I thought. “Oh! Perhaps ‘pouty’ is just a word to describe what we’d actually See if we saw inside a soft kiss!”

“And maybe, Maybe” I thought, “We Interpret any eyelashes as being Long when we slow down so much that we’d actually feel those little things with our eyes closed.”

Maybe it has less to do with the thoughts that might causes Pout Lips and Long Eyelashes in our platonic interactions than
it really has to do with Sensuality - the physical feel of Pouty Lips and Long Eyelashes.

Here’s the Digital version that I designed for the new Spa:

Whew - It’s not easy to be an Artist. I really have to go through all that soul-searching from the sorts of things that people say to me. I also have to relive my life in comparison to the Parties that I go to. What was I like when I was 13? What was I like when I was 21? Am I generous enough now? Do these people have better relationships than I have now?

All that - Real Art. From my heart.
It’s important that I feel okay about it. So I can go on. I’m so glad that I get responses like I got after sending this one. The client wrote to me (paraphrased):

It has been a pleasure! I’m so glad you’re into my life.
Thank you so much! I so much appreciated this.