Stephan Pastis; Artist, Lawyer, Rat Lover
For today’s artist, I’m picking a cartoonist, Mr. Stephan Pastis. Some folks don’t believe that cartoonist are “real” artist and they are just doodling. While that might be true, even DaVinci doodled (course, his doodles are worth a zillion bucks). The reason that I’m featuring Mr. Pastis is because of two reasons, firstly sometimes art really is just a scribble or doodle. If doodling and the like is the method you want to use to express yourself, go for it! Don’t feel you need to paint a giant 40’ church to be an ‘artist’. Secondly, I love comics (aka: “the funnies”). I remember growing up and reading some of the greats: Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Far Side. There was that great anticipation of reading the dailies and just getting to that one (or, if I was lucky, two) comics that just made me laugh-out-loud. It was that perfect “bite” of humor that would help me get through a bad day or be the cherry on top of a perfect day.
Mr. Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine, has created one of those types of comics. Sometimes I’ll read one and it will just be so funny I can’t stop laughing and all day I’ll have a silly grin on my face. I’ll cut such a gem and decorate my walls or door with it, so as to share that little rectangle of art to others.
I recommend you read Pearls (and all the other comics on the ‘funny page’ as well), because let’s be honest, we could all use a little rectangle of art that makes us laugh in our lives.
Wikipedia
Stephan Pastis Blog
