A humor and art blog consisting of : Art Projects, Original Cartoons, Cigar Box Guitars plus other entertaining Odds & Ends. All content & imagery copyright 2010-2020



Saturday, November 26, 2011

Wishful Thinking


I could go on all day about how our news broadcast media is completely market driven, that objectivity is non-existent, and that too much attention is given to dysfunctional, half-wit celebrities. But, I'll save that particular rant for another day. For now, let me just let me say the following; the 24 hour TV news cycle demands that every minute of every day be filled with something. The result is that everything becomes "newsworthy". What a waste of airtime. Not everything is relevant, or interesting, or deserving of media attention. Stupid and trivial things become legitimized through media exposure.  Americans would be better served if we had less of Hollywood's lunacy and more international news. We know too much about the world of entertainment, and not enough about world affairs that have an actual bearing upon our lives.

Dogs will often appear in my cartoons. Dogs are fun and easy to draw but more importantly, dogs are very emotive. It's pretty easy to to tell what's on a dog's mind based on their expressions, and body language. Where its applicable, having a dog in the composition can help to reinforce the intent, and desired tone for a cartoon. A dog's actions or reactions can also add a subtle, secondary, visual punch line. Although my personal preference is slightly in favor of cats, for the purposes of my blog work... dogs are this cartoonist's best friend.

[BuckToonz recently added new readers in Finland & Norway. Thank you, and welcome aboard!]

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Circles In The Field


Since I was a wee lad, I have always been fascinated with what have been called "Earth Mysteries". These are such things as; Crop Circles, UFOs, Bigfoot, Yeti, Lake Monsters, and so on. There have been mistaken I.D.'s and quite a number of fakes over the years, but this does not account for all of the sightings. There is still so much that we don't know about our own planet, and my mind remains open to possibilities. There is something to all of this, and the big question is -- what? It would be quite satisfying to get some definitive answers within my life time. Then I get to smugly say that I believed it all along.

Today's cartoon title is taken from a song by my favorite progressive metal band, Galactic Cowboys.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Functional Tattoos


I don't have any tattoos. It's not that I'm opposed to them necessarily, it's just that I have yet to find an image that I want to live with for rest of my life. Perhaps I'm fickle that way. When I was a kid, the only people who had tats were ex-military, ex-cons, and bikers. Tats represented where these people had been, and/or what they were rebelling against. Only tough guys had tats. Women?... Never. Now of course its all changed, and body art has gone mainstream. There is nothing rebellious about tattoos anymore. Body art has become a highly personalized fashion statement. And that's just fine.

I'm a pragmatic guy and I can see myself having a functional tattoo towards the end of my lifespan. Having a tat that said "Return To Sender" along with my name and address would useful should I become senile, and develop the habit of randomly walking about. As I approach my death some tattooed instructions would be quite helpful to the people I leave behind. Such things as, "Do Not Resuscitate", "Cremate Me, Please", and "Alert The Media". I would also strongly consider inking on a  "Do Not Judge Me Too Harshly by What You May Find on My Computer". That one's kind of long, but it's really important. I'd find room for it somewhere.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Fine Art

This semester I have been taking an Art History class that has helped me to have a greater understanding of fine art. It has also revealed some oddities. Such as painters in certain eras, giving a title to their works that is blatantly obvious to the viewer. This week's cartoon "Nude Woman on Couch with Guitar” is an example of that. A more interesting title might be, “My Mistress with Her Favorite Guitar”. Now isn't that better? We are given a little more information, and it seems less condescending. But then there is the opposite approach which is to not name a painting at all by using “Untitled”.  I realize that titles imply meanings, and some artists may not want to put  preconceived ideas into the viewer's mind. But I think "Untitled" gets over used, and I find that a bit lazy.  Do not worry art world, I'm quite capable of deriving my own meanings from art works regardless of the given title. How about this; an artist gets to name just one of their works “Untitled”,  and they can do this one time in every media that they work in. After that, they have to commit to actually naming what they create.

However, beyond an obvious title or no title at all, there is then supposedly all sorts of symbolic imagery loaded into a painting. Perhaps so much so that only an art historian can decipher it for you--yikes! To loosely paraphrase Freud, can't a painting, be just a painting? Are there some people in the art world who want to over complicate things in order to seem smart, and important? That would not be surprizing as it is human nature to do so. But perhaps I'm still a Neanderthal when it comes to all this, and I may develop a different opinion as I go further down the art history road....next semester.

I encourage people to read Tom Wolfe’s, The Painted Word.  It’s a fast, and fun read that gives valuable insight into the peculiar world of modern art.