|
|  |
| | | |
|
| There is no Content Feed currently selected for display. |
| There is no Content Feed currently selected for display. |
| |
|
Take a Good Look at What I Do! |
This is me, before I grew my moustache and beard, pecking away at my computer keyboard, two pointer fingers and a thumb bringing you this message about HAPPY FACES! |
| |
|
A Little Background Info |
|
When I was a senior in high school, the teacher who was the advisor of the yearbook committee appointed me the official cartoonist for the 1955 edition. I drew some gag cartoons, similar in style to those I had admired for several years on the pages of the magazine "Saturday Evening Post," in a scratchy attempt to add some high school humor to the somewhat formal design of the "Chieftain." Among these rather crude drawings were depictions of some of my classmates, the principal, and his office secretary. At the time, I had no idea that cartoons which resembled real people were called "caricatures." In fact, several years were to go by before I learned that word. By that time, I was in college, where I used my drawing abilities on posters promoting the candidacy of fellows seeking election to the student council, on flyers advertising cultural events on campus, and on scraps of paper on which I scribbled resemblances of guys who were fellow-residents in our dormitory. |
Here's some high school humor... | |
|
Some Cartoon/Caricatures from College Life |
Here are two drawings I made back in 1958...The college I attended was a church-sponsored institution. Graduates were considered ministers who would serve as teachers in parochial schools. "Call Night" was a special event during which students learned where they would be heading after graduation. I drew myself as the fellow who claimed not to be nervous about this momentous occasion. Snickering about her future husband's bravado was my sweetheart who has put up with me now for nearly 50 years. Looking on was my good friend Gary and some other gal whose name I can't recall. The other cartoon was drawn to poke a little fun at college girls who don't seem to realize that a semester or two of cheeseburgers, pizzas, and other delights will in time cause last year's dress to shrink a bit... |
| |
|
In College and Beyond |
Gary and I still keep in touch,
nearly fifty years after we met. |
A few years ago, my friend Gary sent me a copy of this caricature I had drawn of him during the first term of our freshman year, in 1955. He told me that he had found the drawing in his mother's house; she had saved it for more than 40 years. Gary remembered that I had drawn all of the fellows who bunked there in the same room on the second floor of Brohm Hall. Ten of us shared the room. What great times we had in those days! | | |
|
Great Days in Saginaw, Michigan |
|
|
Time surely has flown by! A couple weeks after our graduation in June of 1960, Louise and I were married at Trinity Lutheran Church, Muskegon, Michigan. We settled in Saginaw and began our careers as elementary school teachers. Both of us taught 4th graders; she worked at Peace Lutheran School, and I served at Bethlehem. We rented the upstairs of a home owned by members of Bethlehem Church and in time began to raise our family. Paul was born March 1, 1962, and his sister Diana came along on May 21, 1963. A few years later we were blessed with another boy, Timothy, who made his appearance on April 26, 1968. By that time we were living in a home of our own, located in the suburb of Carrollton. | |
|
Thank You, Mr. Tasco! |
|
My wife and I and our three youngsters moved from Saginaw to Muskegon in 1969. During the 1970s, we enjoyed all the activities that were part of a week-long celebration called the "Seaway Festival," which took place around the 4th of July. We participated in the annual sand-sculpturing contest at the city beach on the shores of Lake Michigan. The frog-jumping contest was a lot of fun, and of course there was a big parade through the downtown streets, and band concerts, and fireworks. But the major event, at least in my mind, was the three-day art fair held in Hackley Park right in the heart of the city. There was so much to see and admire! And summer after summer, I watched an older gentleman from a suburb of Detroit draw caricatures of passers-by. He used large pastel chalks, and working very swiftly, he would create comical drawings that made the surrounding crowd of fair-goers break into hearty laughter. He'd finish a drawing and hand it to his wife who would slip it into a frame and collect ten dollars from the customer. By the time that bit of business was completed, the artist would be working on the next caricature. I asked myself, wouldn't that be an enjoyable summer occupation for a vacationing schoolteacher? It might be a good way to accumulate some extra grocery money, too. So I bought a box of pastel chalks and a package of 11 x 17 card stock, built myself an easel with a drawing board attached, and started practicing, practicing, practicing. My children served as models, and in addition I used pictures of celebrities I found in magazines as reference photos. I enrolled in the next Seaway Festival art fair. Being a humble sort of fellow, I set my price at $2.50 per face. I discovered that I could whip out as many as two caricatures in an hour. Now there would be TWO caricature artists in the park... the experienced Mr. Irving Tasco of Livonia, Michigan, and the young upstart, Lee Suckow of North Muskegon. If it hadn't been for the inspiration provided by Mr. Tasco, I might never have signed up to draw in summer art fairs. |
Caricatures of my three
children... done in 1977
as I prepared for drawing
at art fairs. | |
|
It Was A Rainy Day... |
This is a self-caricature
that I am rather proud of... |
One day in those early years when I was enrolled to draw at the Seaway Festival show in Hackley Park, Muskegon, the event was washed out by a heavy, all-day rain. Organizers of the art fair gained permission to invite the vendors to set up in the large parish hall of the Episcopal church across the street from the park. I squeezed into a corner of the hall and immediately got busy creating my half-hour wonders. It warmed my heart to find that folks would line up to be caricatured by a rank beginner; I had a warm feeling also for the two dollars and fifty cents I would be paid for each happy face. Toward the end of the morning, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a man standing nearby and grinning from ear to ear. It was Mr. Tasco, smiling at my struggles and perhaps thinking back to his own early efforts to put his talents to work. It was an encouraging grin, and one I shall never forget. | |
|
A Drawing by Irving Tasco |
The similarities between the two boys (actually father and son) are quite striking. |
I regret to this day that I did not part with ten bucks and have Irving Tasco do a caricature of me. But at least in 1993 I had the chance to take a photograph of a genuine Tasco drawing. A woman brought this picture to me, saying that it was a caricature of her son drawn when he was a little boy, back in 1977. She gave me some photos of her grandson (the little boy's little boy) and requested that I do a caricature of the grandson to match the drawing by Tasco. I enjoyed the challenge... | | | | |
|