Early Artistic Influences, Part XLVI

Test Your Talent, ca 1964

Bambi or the Boxer?

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — Does anyone remember the "Learn to Draw" ads in the back of 1960s magazines? My aunt Hoohoo sat me in her lap in the early-to-mid 1960s, opened up the TV Guide to the ad in the back of the book, and showed me how to follow the lines in the published drawings in the ad, and create my own drawings on a small pad. She did the deer because I loved the story Bambi, and she did the Boxer because she loved dogs. She drew them in just a minute or two, and then went on to show me how to draw birds, and houses, and trees... all from her own creative mind, and I lapped up every minute of it. I truly believe I would not be an artist today if it wasn't for Hoohoo. I gave her drawings I made for the rest of her life and she always reacted like she was Auric Goldfinger and I had given her a new bar of gold, lol. 

• Here's a link to the original Boxer ad, dated 1970, but that's several years after Hoohoo did this one. I suppose it ran in publications for many years.

Set 'em Up, Knock 'em Down

Well that's one way to knock the pins down! I could have used an interactive bowling ball back in the day!

This is a humorous handpainted wooded dish depicting an angry bowling ball knocking down some pins. This always hung in my dad's workshop area. As he worked on restoring a chair, or painting some piece of furniture for someone, the little 8-12 year old mini-me would sit on a stool next to him watching him work, and staring at all the things he had on the walls. This dish amused me because it was handpainted, and it made the bowling ball into a little creature. Both concepts fascinated me! I thought it was cool someone would paint a dish, and I thought it was cool that they put eyes on the ball. I would lie in my bed at night thinking about stuff like this, lol!