Simple Drawings
And an inspirational cartoonist
Taking a break from politics today, and sending you a drawing. I hope you enjoy.
My drawing was inspired by one I adore by Robert Weber that appeared in The New Yorker in 1984.
Bob was a talented cartoonist and artist, and a lovely, humble man. His drawings were always in charcoal, and they amazed me.
This is one of my favorites of his:
His style of drawing is immediately recognizable, as is his humor. The expressions on his people’s faces always perfect, and his captions minimal and full of character. And his ideas had a gentleness which spoke to me. I never saw a mean-spirited Weber cartoon.
Such simplicity.
I don’t recall when, but one year for my birthday, Michael asked Bob if he could buy one of his cartoons for my birthday. Bob gave this one below to Michael, and gave it to me for my birthday. Its hanging in our home.
Bob was one of the best practitioners of this art form. He never wanted to have a collection of his work, he said it didn’t interest him.
I snapped this picture of him on the train in the early 1980’s when a bunch of us cartoonists were going down to an exhibition of our work in Washington, DC. I didn’t get to know him well, he was a lot older than me, and very quiet. He died in 2016 at the age of 92, here is his obit in Inkspill.
Thanks, Bob.
And happy Saturday, I hope you all are well. See you tomorrow.
Thank you for this touching tribute to Mr. Weber. And thank you for your wonderfully perceptive drawings… happy Saturday.
These are such wonderful cartoons, Liza---thank you! I'm sorry to say I did not know of Robert Weber so I feel like you've given me an absolute gift. They ARE really amazing drawings and the humor and facial expressions ARE perfect. I think the two best drawings are "The thing I like about New York..." and "So this is where the magic happens" but I really like the humor in all of them. Thanks, again.