It’s jarring. And colorful. As you enter the subway at Union Square in NYC, you are confronted with this awe-inspiring wall created out of post it notes. It’s called a therapy wall or a sticky note confession wall, created after Trump won the election. Most post its are a protest, some are cheering Trump on.
The post its go on and on at Union Square, maybe thousands of feet. Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the wall and left his own message:
“New York State holds the torch high! – Andrew C.
‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free … I lift my lamp beside the golden door’ Emma Lazarus
STATUE OF LIBERTY”
Check out the video above, the subway performer’s music is perfect for the setting.
Well, lo and behold,, I received an email from the teacher in the previous story about the students at MOMA, he wanted to thank me for the story. I had wondered how he found it since his name wasn’t published in the story and he told me that someone at MOMA saw the story and sent it to him.
His name is Sebastian Alappat and he told me this is a special program called SPARK. “My goal as the founder of SPARK is to cultivate and foster that creative fire in kids, if they are artists or not. By introducing the elements to them, you never know what they might be inspired to do. The Museum of Art immersion was two days, two museums and the results were amazing,” he said.
The teacher discussing the painting with two students.
I went to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) again, it seems like I visit every time I’m in New York. I stopped by in October and in July and again now, in November. It’s like a home away from home for me. Maybe because so many of my favorite paintings are there, but maybe my favorite paintings are there because I’m there so often and I recognize them and they are familiar and that’s what makes it home for me. I guess it’s my favorite that I like to visit, Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Maybe that’s why I go.
Anyway, today it was pretty cool because there were a handful of young school kids there with their teacher and they were drawing the paintings. The kids may have been about 8 or 9 years old. And it caught my attention because I sort of did the same thing in college, but I had to recreate an image from a photo, not the actual painting like these school kids. New York school kids have this great advantage of growing up surrounded by art and culture.
I was going to ask the teacher about it, but I didn’t want to dilute their adventure by getting myself involved. I watched them go from room to room, some held back, as I guess they aren’t born artists, but some got so into it. It was such a pleasure to see.
I am getting comics done for the January 1 launch of Tomversation, which will be published daily on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomversation. Hope to see you there.
Hope you “like” the page and enjoy the daily comics when they pop up on your feed.
I put the Christmas tree up yesterday. I know it’s mid-November, but I’m leaving town for a bit and wanted it to be up and ready when I return in December. It’s sort of like early voting, takes the pressure off!
I love the Spidey ornament. I think I won this in this dumb game we play every year. People buy an ornament, wrap it and place it on the table, then after drawing straws or something, people choose the wrapped ornament that they would like. People can then steal from them when it’s there turn and therein lies the rub. I think the ornaments should stay wrapped, so you are gambling when you choose the ornament from someone, it’s like door number 1, 2 or 3. But we unwrap the ornament when we choose it and everyone then knows what it is, so there is a lot of stealing going on. It sort of makes it best to be the last one chosen since you then have access to any ornament you would like simply by stealing it.
I usually get something good. One year I got an Elvis ornament, another year a nice Snoopy ornament and I think last year it was a small record player.
A friend sent me a notice that it’s the anniversary of Tom & Jerry. I’m not sure why, maybe because my name is Tom, but I never really watched Tom & Jerry growing up. I was a big Hanna-Barbera fan and that was one of their first cartoons, created in 1940, but I was a big Hanna-Barbera fan of the 1960s cartoons like Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.
I’m wondering what makes a kid a fan of certain cartoons or cartoon studios. I’ve never been into Warner-Brothers cartoons or Disney. Not sure why, but most Hanna-Barbera stuff I loved and grew up with. I loved Fractured Fairy Tales, too. I had forgotten about them but a friend recently has been posting episodes on Facebook and it all came back to me. And I loved Rocky and Bullwinkle, which I think featured Fractured Fairy Tales and Sherman and Mr. Peabody, they were by Jay Ward Productions.
This is true: my earliest memory is me at age two or three, running around our Brooklyn apartment, with my mother chasing me, trying to get me into the bath and Huckleberry Hound was on the tv. The show was just coming on, I could hear the theme music in my head as I ran around trying to avoid bath time. That’s it above.
And the first character I can remember drawing is Fred Flintstone. I used to draw Fred daily I remember, from when I could first hold a pencil. So along with Huckleberry Hound, I loved The Flintstones and The Jetsons.
I loved Magilla Gorilla and Yogi Bear, Quickdraw McGraw, Wally Gator, Peter Potamus, Jinxie and Pixie and Dixie, Touché Turtle and Dum Dum, etc.
I remember Huckleberry and Magilla and Yogi and the others being on certain nights at about 7 or 7:30 pm on New York tv. They were reruns at the time and for instance, Huckleberry Hound was on Monday night and he had three parts – his own adventures, and Pixie and Dixie and Hokey Wolf, then Quickdraw McGraw might have been on Tuesday nights and he had his adventure and then showed Auggie Doggie and Doggie Daddy and Snooper and Blabber.
The Flintstones were on in prime time, so were the Jetsons and also Top Cat, I remember.
I remember watching the Wacky Races on Saturday mornings with one of my brothers. We would watch each week, cheering on our favorite character. I don’t think the show was on very long, maybe two years, but we watched the reruns over and over again.
There’s so much to see and do at Comic Con, but as you walk around, you’ll see quite a few booths that sell original cartoon art. Most is comic book characters and pages, but in between if you take the time, you’ll see this. Here is an original Peanuts strip from 1964. Look at the size of it. (Click on the image for large view).
It’s amazing to see this original work. I’ve seen Peanuts strips in museums, too, but this was special, I don’t know why. Maybe because if I had $10,000, I could have had it. But that might be the starting price at auction, and it will probably jump up many thousands more.
I love looking at the line work. I think these are such great pieces of art, up there with Van Goghs and Picassos.
Hiding behind the counter at one booth was this original Krazy Kat Sunday strip. Incredible. I think this one is from the 1930s – an original George Herriman Krazy Kat! It’s marked at $21,000, but at auction will go up much higher.
There were original Hanna-Barbera comic cells and original drawings, too, and so many cool things if you looked around. You had to look past all the noise and activities at Comic Con to find these treasures.
I visited the Guggenheim Museum for the first time in my life yesterday. I think because it was raining and I wanted to get out of the rain. I loved the structure, the architecture, I didn’t care so much for the art. It was mostly blank canvases with a few lines drawn, very abstract. I did enjoy the few Degas, Picassos and Rembrants and of course Van Gogh, but it’s no MOMA.
I loved that Mr. Softee was right outside when I arrived, the perfect thing to start my visit, ice cream from my favorite ice cream truck.
I saw two favorites at New York Comic Con yesterday – Nichelle Nichols from Star Trek and Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine cartoonist. Stephan was signing books at the GoComics booth and Ms. Nichols downstairs at the autograph section.
I admire Stephan a lot. I interviewed him for my 10 With Tom column once. You can see that here.
I visited MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) yesterday in New York. It was quite crowded, I guess it always is. I feel very at home there, whenever I’m in town, I make it a point to stop by, I say that I’m visiting “my friends,” Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, etc.
Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is my favorite. And then I love the Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” I think I’ve told the story often; in college we had to recreate a famous painting using the colors that we cut out of magazines. I chose the Demoiselles painting by Picasso. I did a great recreation, the size was about 3″ x 3,” so when I first saw the original at MOMA a few years later, I was flabbergasted at the size of the real thing. I was so used to seeing my original at that small size that the original really threw me. And “Starry Night” is so much smaller when you see it in person. I has such a prominence in the art world that you would assume it would be much larger than it really it.
I put the Christmas tree up yesterday. I know it’s mid-November, but I’m leaving town for a bit and wanted it to be up and ready when I return in December. It’s sort of like early voting, takes the pressure off!
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