Fall Store

Fall Store

8.5" x 11"

pencil sketch

Edie inspired this sketch as we discussed old buildings on Main Street in Calvert. She remembered a store that had sugar cane displayed and I remember others that also had sugar cane, pumpkins, and all kinds of fall fare on display. We had talked about the building on the corner by the red light, next door to Brannon's Shoe Shop. The photo that I took recently and had on my blog is fascinating, to me, because of the reflections, the architectural features, and the way that you can see other buildings through the plate glass windows.

I think it would make a nice little art gallery, tea room, etc.

Since today is Edie's birthday, I thought I would post this little unfinished sketch.

Happy Birthday, Edie!

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Tomorrow is the big election day here. Some of us may have an anxiety attack or high blood pressure problems before this is all over! It has been a most unusual time. But, through history, I guess that each election has had its own problems and characteristics. So we shall see how it goes down in history. (No telling how it will be written about. But we will know what it was really like as we are witnesses to history. You might even want to write down your own views and observations for the future. When someone tries to rewrite events, you will have the truth as you know it.) We probably could have done that with past elections and events. Personally, I never thought of that. I left it to newspapers and magazines. But just think of all that has occured in the past 50 - 70 years. All that we could have recorded.

If you are involved, go to GretaWire on Foxnews.com and read and post on her blog.

Also, you might express your opinion on Red Head Ranting at http://redheadranting.blogspot.com/ . She has a poll where you can vote on your choice for president, or you can tell if you aren't voting, etc.

Laura Ingraham also has an interesting blog/newsletter that she sends out. (I practically feel like I know her, since Virginia Vaughan told me that she did a portrait of Laura's dog! Virginia does fantastic pictures of animals. I envy that. My animals all look like cartoons!)

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I didn't intend to get political on my blog. But, with others expressing their opinions, I just had to put in my two cents worth. If you agree with me, great! If you don't, I'm sorry and wish that we did agree. But, we can still be friends.

While I watch tv, sometimes, I do cartoons, especially about events in the news. I haven't done it in a while, though. I did cartoons from the time I was little. In fact, I taught myself to draw by going to the funny papers if I wanted to know how to draw something like a hand or a foot, eye, or nose from the side. I went through a period when I could only draw one leg on my people. I liked to make little stories with my pictures, so I had all these drawings of people with only one leg. I had "The Pirate and the Beautiful Lady", a compostion book filled with one legged characters!

We didn't have art in school. As a result, no matter what I do, that cartoon style comes out when I'm left to my own devices.

At one time, I did a cartoon strip for the "Calvert Tribune" which centered on life in Calvert around my grandfather's dry goods store. I learned a lot from doing that cartoon strip. It was actually hard work, considering that there were no computers to do the lettering, etc. It took me many hours to do each one.

Because of my newspaper experiences, I was given the job of teaching journalism, doing yearbook and the newspaper at school, and turning in articles about the school to the local newspaper. Along with this, we participated in the "Houston Chronicle" Editorial Cartoon contest. (Actually, we usually learned about it too late, but did the project anyway. We researched editorial cartoons, learned to use the materials and practiced techniques, the old way, with india ink and pen!) Later, we learned to add some lettering with the computer.

Ideas still come to me for editorial cartoons as I observe things. I did a few during this campaign and I am going to share some with you.

You may not agree! But, you have to understand that, one purpose of the Editorial Cartoon is to get a reaction from people-good or bad! Make people think and have some reaction. Sometimes, the cartoonist does not agree with what he is depicting, but he just wants to get that reaction or stir things up. Sometimes it works too well! Sometimes the artist does share what he feels. I think that, these days, sometimes, the artist is trying to draw something that he can sell and thinking more along the lines of psychology. Of course, there are some limitations to our freedom of speech today because of threats and political correctness, which is sad to see.

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If you haven't voted, go out and vote tomorrow! (Legally, of course!)

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The Squeaky Wheel

8.5" x 11"

ink

On her blog, Red Head Ranting, she mentions that she has never been called for a poll, and no one she knows has been called, either. I haven't either and no one I know has been called. It's sort of like the ratings for tv shows. No one has ever asked me and I don't have one of those little boxes from Nielson. I guess we should be grateful that we are not bothered, but I feel like a lot of us are being overlooked. I don't think that polls are reliable.