Sunday Mailbag

Q: Do any of your children share an interest in cartooning or art? Would you encourage or discourage them from that interest? Would or do you employ them at any of your concessions?

A: All of my kids are creatively talented and interested in the arts. They all draw and do it very well, but none of them have much of an interest in being a professional artist. My oldest Elizabeth, 17, is autistic and very musical. She can hear a song and sing or hum it without missing a note right after. Victoria, 15, draws very well and is thinking about doing caricatures when she’s old enough. I am sure she could do it, but that’s just her idea of a summer job. She’d like to get into performing arts and theater, as she has an amazing voice and is quite the little actor. Gabrielle, 13, is also very good in theater and has a terrific voice. She is highly creative and can both draw and design very well. She wants to get into the culinary arts and be a pastry chef, which is a very creative job. My son Tommy, 11, also draws well and likes it. He may be the closest of any of the kids to wanting to use his art skills for a living. He wants to do art for video game design… must be all those hours he’s logging in on Halo 3.

I would encourage any of my kids to pursue art for a living if they wanted to, just as I would encourage them to do anything that they set their minds to as a career. I would never push them towards it, but I would certainly encourage them if that is what they want to do.

As for having them draw caricatures for me, I would do that in a heartbeat if they make the cut. They understand they can’t get the job just because they are my kids… they’d have to demonstrate the skill and commitment to learning and improving I demand of all the people that work for me. I don’t think that is an issue, each of them has enough talent and nature appitude, so all it will take is hard work and training. Luckily they live with the teacher.

Thanks again to Michael Garisek for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!