I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I wasn’t going to post anything, but I’m tired of looking at that old photograph of myself. Speaking of photographs, I thought you might be interested to know the blurry background image on this site is from an actual photograph of my drawing board, the board I have used for years and years. It isn’t a table as depicted in this self-portrait, though. It is a simple board that sits flat on the surface of my office desk. That arrangement suits the hump in my back. The hump came first, in case you’re wondering. We call it the “Johnson stoop.”
Back to the ol’ drawing board
By Jimmy Johnson
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11 responses to “Back to the ol’ drawing board”
Today’s strip in the paper put me in mind of my grandfather, who loved the smell of burning leaves and was bereft when the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts said he couldn’t burn leaves in his yard any more. So when he came down to our farm Virginia for Thanksgiving with us one year, my mother presented him with several bags of leaves and a box of matches, much to his delight. He died in 1998 and we had memorial leaf burnings at Thanksgiving for about 20 years after that.
That sounds pleasantly respectful. More power to y’all!
Hi, everybody. I just wanted to wave at you since I hadn’t been here in a while. Site is looking good, Jimmy! It’s really nice to see some familiar names from the old Village.
Nice to see you too, Nancy!
Ditto to you, Ruth Anne.
Thank you, Mr. Johnson, for the two photographs! One of you, and one of your board. I saw Sparky Schulz’s drawing board–in person. In the Charles M. Schulz Museum. He used to say that when he wore a hole through the board, he’d quit.
JJ: Your descriptions of the drawing board and the tools that you use to draw the strip bring to mind a question that I have had for years: How much of art is art, and how much of art is science and technology?
There is definitely some science to art: Michaelangelo couldn’t stop by the local artist supply store to peruse the latest colours.
True.
Today’s (10/28) strip is a ritual that we all go through. Never found much money but a lot of memories.
I often will keep the prayer cards for deceased friends and family in my suit jacket. Because I wear suits so infrequently I do not get them cleaned as often as I used to. When I recently did a couple suits, my wife saw all the cards and was ready to pitch them till she saw my face and realized that I’m strange that way. I feel like sometimes I have the spirit of that person still with me.
It is said that you die two times: once when you physically die and once when no one remembers you ever lived. Prayer cards are a way to keep those people alive in our memories.