Drawing Anger

Is it in the written line or the line line, or both?

Drawn on my iPhone with my finger just now after reading the article below

Here in the US, we spend so much time thinking about Trump—not without reason. He is a real threat. But as I read the news this morning, I saw an article I wanted to point to. It’s in The New Yorker by Mira Sethi, about Pakistani women. Major Pakistani cities have held an anual march for women’s rights since 2018, called Aurat March. It’s so controversial that by participating, one is cast as provocative. Pakistan is going through emmense cultural change, and women aren’t backing down. The author writes,

“In Karachi, where I marched this year, I spoke with a twenty-two-year-old Hindu girl who was marching against forced conversion to Islam; with a fifty-year-old communist activist whose cause was economic equality; with an eighteen-year-old trans girl who was marching against her violent, alcoholic father; with two medical students in their early twenties who were sick of sharing their live Uber locations with their parents; with a twenty-seven-year-old manager of a textile firm who was protesting the sexual harassment faced by his female colleagues; with a forty-year-old instructor who gives free martial-arts lessons to women; with a nineteen-year-old queer girl who wanted to remain anonymous and had lied to her parents in order to attend the march.”

A drawing from several years ago, as I searched for connection within the global women+ community

On another note….

I have cartoon history on my brain because I am teaching that virtual course on the subject. Can I just gush for a moment about this drawing?

By James Thurber, it’s been on my desktop because I love it. I don’t like that they are angry with one another, I just like the interaction of lines and energy in the drawing. Yes, perhaps I channeled the energy of this drawing when I drew the image at the top of this post.

Then look at this drawing below, by Nate Collier in 1925 for The New Yorker. Completely different drawings that evoke different feelings. They were done probably within 20 years of each other. They show the uniqueness of each creator and how ideas are transmitted in line.

How about this one, by Barbara Shermund.

So many ways to say something in drawing! It doesn’t always have to be about politics, or Trump.

Thanks for being here.

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