Cover up?

This month a local magazine did a story on me and my family for their summer issue. It seems odd that a small, suburban town like Burnsville, MN would have it’s own (and extremely professional) glossy magazine. It turns out many suburban towns have similar publications… the publisher that produces Burnsville Magazine does other magazines for several other Twin Citie’s suburbs like Woodbury and Eden Prairie. They are very well done, but likley too small a budget to be a potential client for a freelance illustrator.

The story is several pages and describes my work, my background and my family, including a little about my autistic daughter, Elizabeth. It was very flattering to be chosen for a story, the idea for which was planted in their heads by fellow NCS member and Minnesota cartoonist David Phipps, who had worked with a former editor of the magazine. They used my self caricature as the main story image with several pictures in my studio, of the whole family in the backyard and of course the cover. I did that drawing of Alfred on a piece of plexi and we decided to add color to it after the fact. I had to draw him backwards. Unfortunately there is no on-line version to link to.

The story did serve one useful purpose. Several of our neighbors who we did not know well now know what I do for a living… apparently I was previously believed to be a lawyer. I was wondering why some passing neighbors kept asking me what they should do about their speeding tickets.