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January 23, 2009

desertmanhattan update

7 Comments

[Close-up of “Desert­Manhat­tan”. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
1. I star­ted Desert­Manhat­tan in Sep­tem­ber [See ini­tial post here]. I thought it would take me a cou­ple of weeks. Now I’m thin­king, if I get it done within six months, that’ll be pretty good going.
2. I don’t work on it that much. Maybe twice a week for a cou­ple of hours. Usually I enter the stu­dio when I’m fee­ling a bit overwhel­med by other stuff. It ser­ves as some sort of refuge for me, when I don’t want the other stuff to mat­ter, at least for a while.
3. I’m in no hurry to get it finished. Maybe I’ll work on it for a cou­ple of years. Maybe I’ll never finish it, but just keep on wor­king on it fore­ver– like a blog, a work in pro­gress, a never-ending story. Just an idea.
4. Desert­Ma­nahat­tan is not a work of art. It’s a car­toon. I’m not an artist. I’m a car­too­nist. To me, the dis­tinc­tion is impor­tant.
5. I might sell Desert­Ma­nahat­tan. I pro­bably won’t. At least, not yet.
6. I like the Build-it-slowly-but-obsessively approach. It’s not the only way I like to work, but it cer­tainly has its place.
7. Yes.

7 Responses to “desertmanhattan update”

1. Linda says:

   January 23, 2009 at 9:59 PM

   That is so pro­found. I mean, the black lines on what looks like sand colo­red cloth look exactly like a Desert­Manhat­tan I like your expla­na­tion of Texas jux­ta­po­sed with tra­vel to cities like Manhat­tan… and that you’re taking your time with it shows what effort and con­cen­tra­tion goes into this.
   I con­fess I’m a bit con­fu­sed about why you believe car­too­nistry isn’t artistry. My way of thin­king is that any crea­tive work done well is an art. I’m a wri­ter (for the most part) and con­si­der novel wri­ting my art.
2. hugh macleod says:

   January 23, 2009 at 10:06 PM

   Linda, Short Ans­wer: “Art”, like “Love”, is a word best used spa­ringly. Maybe even more so.…
3. Anonymous says:

   January 24, 2009 at 12:07 AM

   How i wish i can be a good car­too­nist also..
4. Mark McGuinness says:

   January 24, 2009 at 5:24 AM

   Leonardo’s ‘Vir­gin and Child with St Anne and St John the Bap­tist’ is a cartoon.
5. Lisa Call says:

   January 24, 2009 at 9:32 AM

   How does pla­ying small serve anyone?
6. Daniel Edlen says:

   January 28, 2009 at 9:17 AM

   It’s your jour­nal. I love it.
   And you say you’re not an artist. Your dis­tinc­tion based on Searls, you are not Chi­nese. You are uni­que.
   Any­body who crea­tes visually as a refuge from stuff is an artist. It’s not a bad thing, . It might be *gasp* healthy.
   Peace.
7. Anonymous says:

   January 28, 2009 at 10:12 AM

   Wait. Since when do you make such a pro­noun­ced dis­tinc­tion bet­ween “artist” and “car­too­nist”? I’ve read you refer to your­self as an “artist” count­less times, and always in a way that seems remo­ved from the ways in which actual artists con­si­der them­sel­ves as such.