God! I'm good!

It' 5:30 and I'm awake and pouring through the piles of drawings and cartoons I've done through the years. Good therapy. I'm fu..... good! I'm tired of sitting on my ass and not doing sumthin with this stuff. It sux being an Artist. "Damned mood swings anyway!"

It's time, Dear Readers. Time for this one to blossom (not bloom, you pervs)!

It's time to introduce you to the Artist. The side that at one time used to get my buddy, "B-Guy" (whom, by the way, has the most incredible wit and sarcastic art I've seen) sent at LEAST once a month into the VP's office to either apologise, or be on probation for 90 days for artwork that shouldn't have been found on company premises. (man, that was one helluva sentence!)

OH! OH! Gotta tell ya! Quick note about "B-Guy"!! This man used to make the Art Dep't cry from laughter! Other times, red-faced. So, it was a summer day in the Art Dep't at North American Signs. We actually had an Art Dep't before they put us in cubes. Anyway, "B-Guy and Jim, the Art Director, had their drawing tables by the windows. Great view. Especially of the vista across the lawn of the McCormick factory. Windows were open to let fresh air and sunshine in. Just so happened there was a fellow entering the factory. He had to be at least 100-150 ft away. We're all drawing and toiling the time when all of a sudden "B-Guy" yells, "fu.. you" out the window. (how do you spell terrets? turetts?..doh! I dunno!)

Both Jim and myself were kind of mildly alarmed. Wasn't the first time he'd done something like that, or even bothered to question. It was just "B-Guy". The thing that made it more than a simple case of, "well, working on drawings all day can be boring", was when he'd yelled the expletive, the VP was entering the Art Dep't. I don't think there was enough room under my drawing table to hide and I remember both the shock on Jim's face and the "Oh, I am sooo screwed", look on ""B-Guy's" face. It was a three page, handwritten apology after that. I think it and some of our other antics was the implementation of the "fall of the Art Dep't". Those were the BEST times of any job I'd ever had! I miss them. We were by far, three of the most creative and most times, bored Artists any Art Dep't could have ever found.

This really wasn't supposed to be about "B-Guy", or the one time Art Dep't. Guess it ended up that way. It was an influence on my life. It was my intro into the Professional and Corporate world. It was a great time and a sad time. Sad, to see our Art Dep't shredded into little Cubes. Sad to see our Art Director shoved into a room all by himself and stripped of his title (he died shortly thereafter from cancer). Sad to see "B-Guy" placed in the basement away from what he enjoyed most; a window with light! Normal people can't really comprehend what that means to an Artist. I think.

Okay, so now I'm "knee deep" in this blog, so here's a quick one about Jim. He was the Art Director and the mentor for myself and "B-Guy". The man's talent was his "photographic memory". It was incredible the drawings he could render from everything he saw and lived. He would do drawings of his time he'd spent in Korea and Japan. To the detail of what some of the soldiers looked like to the detail of the machines and planes of that era. His other talent, which nurtured mine and "B-Guy's" was his ability for caricatures. We had a pile, 1,000's of drawings of almost every employee at the time. Some which would, of course, fall into wrong hands, mysteriously, (had to be an Expeditor). And once again, myself, or "B-Guy" would be reprimanded by the VP.

When Jim was hospitalized for his cancer he called for "B-Guy" and I to come visit. It was Jim's time to say goodbye to us. God, that was hard to take. For both of us. Jim was a man of true character. Good husband, father and a good Catholic! Of which he asked both "B-Guy" and me to destroy the cartoons of the employees we had created. That was tough! But, it was Jim's way of making sure his amends with his God would give hime the road to Heaven without that on his mind.

He was a good man. So, I guess this blog is dedicated to the two individuals that helped influence my life, helped nurture the cartoonist. We had fun!