Sunday Mailbag- If You Weren’t an Artist?

Q: If you couldn’t draw or work in art at all what do you see yourself doing for a living?

Depends on what you mean by “art” under your restrictions. If, by your question’s rules,¬¨‚Ć I just could not draw but would still be allowed to work in the creative fields, I think I would have tried to be a writer. I’m not sure I could have pulled off a career in that field, but I think I would have given it a try.

If my entire right-brain creativity center was short-circuited and I had no aptitude in the creative arts at all, I would have been either a litigation lawyer (BOOOO HISSSSS) or a computer programmer. I was actually a pretty good student in school. I graduated with a 3.86 GPA and won a state math award my senior year in high school, was in the National Honor Society, and did other nerdy endeavors like competing in forensics (the dramatic readings, not the dissection of dead people). I even did a little computer programming on (what was then the brand new) Apple II at a time when “Castle Wolfenstein” was the most advanced of computer games. I apply all that left-brain juice (or what’s left of it) to running my business and other things now. Also doing my taxes, and trying to figure out my cell phone bill.

Thanks to Clive 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!