Imagine my surprise when I walked into a Bar Mitzvah last weekend and everybody (except me) was wearing sweats and jeans. The nightime celebrations were at a local Y - 'til midnight! The guests swam and played baseball in between eating and getting drawn.

It was a whirlwind for me. Not only because I expected it to be a dress-up occasion. But also because, surprise again, I didn't know ahead of time that they expected body/hobby. No time to 'learn my lines'.

Let's see what came out of me under those circumstances. It's so interesting to me that this is real art. That my performance is affected by circumstances and emotions. Well, surprised, didn't know what I drew until 'the morning after' (when I saw these photos), and we all had a good time:

Here are some pictures that I did 2 weeks ago, The graphics card on my camera-phone was full when I was doing this week's jobs. (St Patty's Day was a hoot! I was really on.)

I see so many people, draw so many pictures. And each one is special. Each one unique. I wish I had photos of them all, but my grahics card was full. Here's all I got for now - from parties I worked 2 weeks ago. Anybody feel like writing a poem about that for me?

My friend Bippy (Caricaturist from Rochester) was interviewed this morning:

www.13wham.com

When you get to the website, click on the word "Video" in the rectangle near the top of the page. Then do Control F(ind), type in the word Caricature, and you can see it.

He has a way of making me feel good about what I do. While being acknowledged for the Flattering Caricatures he draws, he mentioned Kruger's Wild Caricatures. Mine are somewhere in the middle - between Bippy's and Kruger's. By seeing those 2 successful extremes juxtaposed with each other, it's clear that there isn't only one 'right way' to do this.

And here's some pictures that I drew of the Artist Bippy:

I gave myself a treat after last night's gig. I went to a bar to see the Arkham's playing music. They played some of my favorites: The Road to Arkham, and Hell is Where the Good Records Are:

http://www.myspace.com/thearkhams

They also brought in a band from Kentucky - The Rumble Club. I'm trying to make sense out of the picture I drew of the Rumble Club. Rough or Clean - I can't decide which is the better picture.

First, here's the rough drawing that I drew standing in the very dark bar. Not only were my subjects turning and bending and changing their expressions on the high stage, but the biggest obstacle to really seeing them was the apparatus in front of them - things like the curly part of the upright base and the microphone:

So I came home and cleaned it up a bit. Outlines and colors:

But the real surprise to me was this 3rd picture. More correct, but not nearly as good. It's clear that the Artist has to have the Feeling of the genre. Gotta be out in the world. Gotta experience. That's much more important than having the 'right conditions'. The 'right tools'.

I drew this 3rd person in the quiet of my Studio. Having seen them in person, I was able to make sense out of the photos on their website. I made this cleaner, more 'correct' picture in the quiet of my well-lit studio. It got no energy, no rhythm: