Yes, absolutely! Especially for cartooning! By way of an example how about this picture (above) of a suburban sidewalk by Crumb. The kid looking at the girl with the funny hat reminds me of the Thomas Hart Benton picture of the farmer peeking at a sleeping nude woman. Both beautifully capture a sensual moment and both seem to have something to say about the enviornment the subjects are in. Farms and suburbs are the products of human thought and are therefore charged with sexuality.
Suburbans (above) must go to work, all at the same time. Wood found a rough beauty in that.
A Crumb girl (above) takes time to read her notebook in a suburban greasy spoon. A wonderful depiction of a quiet moment in the city.
This (above) is an old sketchbook page (previously published on this blog) that I did of my daughter when she was a kid. I did it in a suburban fast food restaurant. Life happens in fast food places just like it does in arab street bazaars and picturesque Provence streets. Why are so many modern artists blind to that?
Yes, absolutely! Especially for cartooning! By way of an example how about this picture (above) of a suburban sidewalk by Crumb. The kid looking at the girl with the funny hat reminds me of the Thomas Hart Benton picture of the farmer peeking at a sleeping nude woman. Both beautifully capture a sensual moment and both seem to have something to say about the enviornment the subjects are in. Farms and suburbs are the products of human thought and are therefore charged with sexuality.
Suburbans (above) must go to work, all at the same time. Wood found a rough beauty in that.
A Crumb girl (above) takes time to read her notebook in a suburban greasy spoon. A wonderful depiction of a quiet moment in the city.
This (above) is an old sketchbook page (previously published on this blog) that I did of my daughter when she was a kid. I did it in a suburban fast food restaurant. Life happens in fast food places just like it does in arab street bazaars and picturesque Provence streets. Why are so many modern artists blind to that?
Very true, I like to go to places of commercial consumer trade and watch people.
ReplyDeleteI like to draw them and the actions of life play out before my eyes.
Then, someone gets upset that their valu meal order is all wrong.
Come on people it's fast food, not a five star bistro!
I agree, it is an interesting place for all sorts of stories about life.
ReplyDeleteI think the suburbs is the air many people breathe, and therefore, it's hard for them to see something they are so surrounded by as art.
I think Johns post on tude was spot on but the people who are now finding tude in golden age looney toons are idiots. John means the arms folded leaning against a no loitering sign rapper from 1992 tude.
ReplyDeleteThat knowing look Bugs bunny used to give when dealing with elmer fudd and yosemitie sam aint tude
I really agree with this post, and I still really like the drawings of your daughter.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen any of the hundreds of printed sketchbooks and blogs of cartoonists? They're not blind to it at all! Quite the opposite. There are riches in store for you if you seek them out: Enrico Casarosa(and the hundreds on the Sketchcrawl pages), David Gemmil, Marlo Meekins, Ronnie Del Carmen, Jeremy Bernstein, James Robertson(Iron Scythe), Don Shank...the list goes on-really, hundreds!
ReplyDeleteSeek them out!
"Why are so many modern artists blind to that?"
ReplyDeleteFor some it seems that their number 1 priority is feeling superior about themselves. They think that trashing the suburbs will make them look like non-conformist bohemians.
Myself, I grew up in an Arabian-Provenzal big city and am currently enjoying the suburbs very much, thank you/
-- anon for now
you should trash people in power, businessmen shareholders executives politicians, not real people
ReplyDeleteEverybody: I regret the sanctimonious tone of
ReplyDeletethis piece and the slam against moderns at the end of this entry. It's not modern's fault that they find suburb exteriors uninspiring. Let's face it, the suburbs are often mathematically laid out and are dominated by cars, roads and parking lots. They're just not that photogenic.
Crumb was a great depicter of the suburbs because he hated them and was always trying to ferret out the dark side. His suburban houses always included fuse boxes, cluttered telephone polls, sewers, and the like. I don't agree with his point of view but at least having a point of view enabled him to get around the drawing block that crippled everyone else.
Anonymous was right to say that the suburbs are covered by lots of cartoonists and animated films. Even so, it's simultaneously true that few people who want to sketch for fun draw the neighborhood they live in.
It does seem to me that cartoonists are the best chroniclers of the suburbs. There's not much here to interest the oil painter but plenty to interest the comic artist and caricaturist.
you WANT to live in Toronto? thats fucked up
ReplyDeleteToronto is the cleanest city I have ever been in, and there is free booze everywhere you go. It was quite a contrast from the city I live in, Pittsburgh, known for its grey sky & pollution.
ReplyDeleteThe suburbs, where life is easy.
ReplyDeleteI love those drawings of your daughter- and I recognize some of the expressions now!
I live in Barrie, which is almost an hour north of Toronto. Toronto has it points although I question the cleanliness comment.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of cleanliness, remember the posting you had a few months back Uncle Eddie about artists work spaces and I told you how mine was not the chaotic mess you praised? Well, I put pics up of it on my blog. Hope I'm still welcome back to your corner after seeing them!
as far as boringness goes toronto is the suburbs
ReplyDeleteJorge,
ReplyDeleteMost CN and Nick series are set in the 'burbs (or in metaphorical 'burbs) because network execs can't acknowledge life outside of major media centers. The current buzz is they don't want ideas that are 'too high concept', partly because everything they currently have on their schedules is exactly that. Forget small town America as a setting, it's neither on their radar nor in their vocabulary. But life does happen everywhere, whether or not it is perceived as marketable.