Play Ball!

In 1839, some significant events took place in the art world.

* Robert Cornelius took a daguerrotype self-portrait, the earliest known existing photographic portrait of a human in America.

  * Paul Cezanne, French impressionist, was born.

  

* * John Butler Yeats, Irish painter, was born.

And in the tiny Upstate New York mountain village of Cooperstown, a young man named Abner Doubleday purportedly invented the game…and the word… "baseball," designing the diamond, indicating fielders' positions, and writing the rules.

Welcome to the April edition of Not Your Usual Caricature Artist from Caricatures by Joel.

It’s my annual salute to our National Pastime (where we conveniently ignore the strides made by the NFL as it, socially and economically, has supplanted MLB as the nation’s leading Sport; but I digress. And, I don’t care…)

We introduced this column through the lens of art, for that’s what we concentrate on, once a month. More specifically, we talk about…and display…caricatures.  

But Baseball is so woven into the fabric of this country’s being, that American artists – pretty much since 1839 – have chronicled the Game in their own particular fashion.

Some contemporary ones, caricaturists – and favorites of mine – are showcased here (and above -- "Charlie Brown," by Charles M. Schultz):

Derek Jeter, by Robert Smith

"Whiff!" by Mort Drucker

Minnesota Twins, by Tom Richmond

"Play at the Plate," by Jack Davis

Yours truly has had his turn at bat, too, in recent times:

Jordan Danks was the Charlotte Knights career hits leader; yours truly was commissioned by the Knights to create this as a gift to him and his family.

Michael Brent, old friend and artist extraordinaire...and longtime Yankees (and Mickey Mantle fan)

Pete Rose, right, as he agreed to speak at a local Charlotte networking function.

Benjamin Kweskin, which his Dad drew as a Sign-In Board for his Bar Mitzvah...

And that’s the game! Tune in the first Tuesday of next month as we step up to the plate for another swing at pop culture through caricature art…and Caricatures by Joel. 

I'd Druther be Drucker

In a 1985 Tonight Show appearance, when Johnny Carson asked Michael J. Fox, "When did you really know you'd made it in show business?", Fox replied, "When Mort Drucker drew my head."

I have been a fan of  the caricaturists at Mad Magazine for almost as long as I've been able to read. But first, and foremost, among my favorite artists there is Mort Drucker.

Welcome to the June issue of Not Your Usual Caricature Artist from Caricatures by Joel.

To me, this octogenarian still has it all -- a core understanding of human (and, occasionally, animal) anatomy, economy of line when rendering his technique and, of course, an almost other-worldly ability to capture likenesses. 

From Wikipedia:

"In the fall of 1956, shortly after the departure of Mad's founding editor Harvey Kurtzman, Drucker found his way to Mad. His first visit to the magazine's offices coincided with a World Series broadcast, and publisher Bill Gaines told Drucker that if the Brooklyn Dodgers won the game, he would be hired. The Dodgers did win. Capricious though Drucker's alleged audition process may have been, it made for a good anecdote. Years later, Gaines unsurprisingly confessed, 'We would have hired him anyway.' More than a half century later, Drucker held the longest uninterrupted tenure of any Mad artist.

 

 

 

"At the time of Drucker's arrival, Mad did not regularly feature TV and movie satires; editor Al Feldstein credited Drucker's style and ability for the decision to start featuring them in every issue.

Charles Schulz once wrote, 'Frankly, I don't know how he does it, and I stand in a long list of admirers... I think he draws everything the way we would all like to draw.' In 2012, referring to Drucker's splash page for Mad's parody of The Godfather, the Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeonwrote, 'The way he draws James Caan's eyebrow is worth some folks' entire careers.'"

 

 "Mort Drucker's Time covers are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. He was recognized for his work with the National Cartoonists Society Special Features Award (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988) and its Reuben Award(1987). 

Drucker was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Boston."

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As for yours truly, I can only aspire to be influenced by Mort Drucker, who has raised the bar starting somewhere at Mount Olympus...

 

Nevertheless, I humbly submit some of my own recent work:

 

 

"Selfie" done for article In B2B Tribe Magazine

 

Commissioned birthday gift art for Harold Rousso, Brownlee Jewelry

 

 

Commissioned birthday gift art for client's daughter

 

 

 Commissioned Sign-In Board for client bride

 

 

See you again the first Tuesday of next month for another mad-dening dose of Not Your Usual Caricature Artist from Caricatures by Joel.

 

Norman Rockwell, Caricaturist?

As Wikipedia notes, "Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades." 

But Norman Rockwell, Caricature Artist?

Welcome to 2015's Opus One of our monthly Not Your Usual Caricature Artist from Caricatures by Joel.

I went recently to an exhibit of his work that showed how he used photography to first establish his concepts (using real friends and neighbors as models, not professionals), from which he then painted his many published and commissioned pieces over a period of 60-plus years.

The thing that struck me was how often -- notwithstanding his penchant for representational realism -- he "embellished" a face or slightly exaggerated a body to lend whimsy and character to his tableaux. 

So, if we are to define "caricature" as "a picture, description or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect," then America's greatest artistic chronicler of our social mores and pastimes could certainly wear the mantle of one...if only occasionally.

As these other, typically brilliant illustrations might indicate:

  

 

Along with the great illustrator/caricaturists of Mad Magazine -- Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Tom Richmond, Jack Rickard, Drew Friedman and others -- Norman Rockwell stands tall as one of my heroes. 

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Here are a few commissioned works from yours truly that I can only hope would have at least elicited a nod of the head from Mr. Rockwell.

TV executive moving from Charlotte to Houston.

 Family expecting their second child; gift from Mom to Dad.

Executive, upon retirement.

Pete Rose on the right (guest speaker), with the founder of the Myers Park Networking Group, Bill Albaugh.

Client...of a client...enjoying his recreational spoils.

And since Rockwell was fond of occasionally inserting himself into his work...here's the latest self-indulgence from yours truly.

The Norman Rockwell exhibit is on display at the Columbia (SC) Museum of Art through January 18.

 Click here: Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera

See you again the first Tuesday of next month for another broad brushstroke of Not Your Usual Caricature Artist from Caricatures by Joel.