March 17th, 2013

Wonder What’s Good In The Art Gallery

by Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker

It’s always a nice surprise to walk into some place and find a cartoon of mine taped to a cash register, pinned up in an office or, best of all, held in place by a little fruit-shaped magnet on someone’s refrigerator door.

Refrigerator doors are the cartoonists’ art gallery.

To have something you created hanging in such a central and well-used part of any home, next to all the kids’ drawings, post cards from far-off places, favorite goofy photos and grocery lists is truly an honor. When you stop to think about it, most of us reserve our ‘fridge doors for things that are very personal and very dear to us. Knowing someone took the time to clip a cartoon I drew because it struck a chord in them, and then gave it some precious door space… well, forget the Louvre.

Of course, I realize that most of my cartoons eventually wind up forgotten in the recycle bin or lining the bottom of bird cages.

In fact, I imagine there are more than a few readers out there who happily make the effort to fold Florida Today’s editorial page in a way so that my cartoon makes a very nice target for their Blue Gold Macaw’s… um… rebuttal.

The Macaw’s Pollack-like results might not be worthy of a place in the Louvre either — though the Museum of Modern Art might perhaps show a little interest.