Cats, Fall, Maine, And A Literary Festival
A menagerie of thoughts
Do you ever wonder about what cats say to each other? I do. We have two, and they don’t tolerate each other very well, but that’s another cartoon.
What if cats like to gossip?
Here’s a fall cartoon for you:
On another note entirely, I have been away as a guest at a Literary Festival in Blue Hill, Maine. It’s called WORD, and I participated in an “In Conversation” thing with a good friend, Pam McCarthy. Pam is the former Deputy Editor of The New Yorker, just retired a year ago or so. She and I talked about cartooning at the magazine, the history of, what she did at the magazine, my work there and other places, my history Very Funny Ladies, and the work of other cartoonists. Pam is such a good speaking partner, we are thinking of taking it on the road!
I was fortunate to meet the other people speaking—namely authors Lily King and Phuc Tran. They were also in conversation on stage and were fantastic, it so interesting in hearing about their process and work. I look forward to reading their books. The community of little Blue Hill was very welcoming, you should plan on attending if you can next year.
At the end of our talk, for the crowd’s amusement, I drew this woman in the audience, live and it was projected on the screen behind us as I drew her. This is something I do routinely at talks now, to demonstrate my live-drawing.
I couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or tickled at what I was doing. She watched me with a deadpan look the whole time (usually people are unaware), and it unerved me a bit.
Earlier that morning, I had drawn Pam while she was on her phone. We were testing the technology for the talk. Pam was unaware of my drawing her.
I haven’t been to many literary festivals (although I’ve been to tons of cartoon festivals), and I find them fascinating and calming. People gathered together over the love of books, listening to authors about their process, their struggles and their joy in writing. Word is a small (and young) festival, but powerful.
A day earlier, Pam took me to visit the graves of some people who were historically a big part of The New Yorker: Katherine Sergeant Angell White, who was an early editor who had a strong hand in shaping the magazine, as well as writing fiction; her husband E. B. White, who was really the voice of the early New Yorker, writing Talk of the Town, Comment and many other things (for me, his real claim to fame was encouraging founder Harold Ross to publish the cartoons of his friend James Thurber!); and their son, writer extraordinaire, Roger Angell. They all lived up in Maine before they died, Roger having just died earlier this year at 101. It was very moving to be there.
Maine is so beautiful, and a great place to forget what you are supposed to be doing…or spend time focusing on what you really want to get done, without distractions. I just spent a day with friend yesterday, talking and writing, looking at her view of the water—my good friend Deb Mills Scofield in Pemaquid.
Now back to reality! Tomorrow I will post more on current affairs.
Cats are easier to draw than people. Cats are always pissed, so you don’t have to worry about offending them.