MY LIFE AS A BONA FIDE CARICATURIST: EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE!

 

MY LATEST BUSINESS CARDS

“EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE” seems an apt descriptor for my latest avocation, that being a bona fide caricature busker. From many directions in a random fashion, my life as a caricaturist is getting wind and taking sail. As noted on my brand-new business cards (see picture atop this paragraph) I’m up for drawing caricatures practically anywhere for any type of event. From wedding receptions to gender reveals to pet portraitures, playing Paladin, HAVE SHARPIE – WILL TRAVEL!

Following a summer of drawing caricatures at several rural festivals and street fairs, I’ve spent this past couple Saturdays setting up to draw at the EMF MARKET MALL in Regina, SK. At the EMF Market is where I met the neatest kid, Archit, who happened to be selling his acrylic paintings just a few vendors down the aisle from my caricature station.

ARCHIT'S STORY

Here are a few more of my customers at the EMF MARKET MALL:

Back to every which way but loose, a few weekends ago, I was invited to a Sunday brunch party to draw the attendees’ caricatures:

For the chef at THE CURE (a downtown bar), who was turning 40, I drew his caricature:

This next caricature is one of the most popular celebrities in Regina, TRISTAN OREMBA:

At the beginning of summer, one of my other job administrators had been transferred. For my farewell present, I drew her caricature:

And at the close of summer, one of my colleagues insisted I draw his best friend!

Factoid: It has been the perfect summer for me drawing caricatures. My caricature busking began at the MANITOU BEACH BUSKERS FESTIVAL, followed by a caricature stint at the OLD WIVES LAKE SUMMER FESTIVAL. From there I was invited to draw caricatures at the LIMERICK ANNUAL FARMERS’ MARKET and then invited back to MANITOU BEACH to draw caricatures at RELICS ANTIQUE SHOP.

Yes. This summer I have learned lots about being a caricaturist. In fact, three personal epiphanies have jumped out at me from these summertime adventures. First, I now realize that I am accursed with a busking addiction. This began with a guitar busking addiction (throughout Western Canada, Western Europe, and even Africa), continued into a banjo busking addiction (mainly Regina), then to a didgeridoo busking addiction (also mainly in Regina), a pencil-portrait busking addiction (Western Europe and Africa), and now caricature busking (so far only in Saskatchewan and British Columbia)!

Yes. I am an accursed BUSKING ADDICT. (Hmmm. But I suppose one could do worse than being addicted to busking!)

My second epiphany is that I am flummoxed by the simple fact that people DO NOT KNOW what they look like! This, of course, is a general statement and inductive reasoning need not necessarily apply, but this epiphany has been confirmed and shared amongst all those that I know in the portrait artist community!

And my third epiphany is that, for me, there is more money to be made busking as a caricaturist than busking in every other regard. When I am drawing caricatures, there is usually a lineup of people ready to pungle up and pay me $10.00 a pop! This works out to $10.00 per 10-minute caricatures, which approximates to $60.00 per hour. (I’ll not want to mislead, dear readers. At times I have made lots of money guitar busking, my record being over $600.00 in one day. But that was just one time. Most times whilst strumming I’ll take in $50 to $100 bucks in a two-hour stand. Drawing caricatures is physically easier and mentally more fun, as I’m always in conversation with my consumers.

It is said that talk is cheap, but this is not so when guitar busking. In fact, when guitar busking talk is expensive because it costs losing most of those passersby customers! Chatting, rather than thrumming and blowing my harp, halts both the music and the money!

Of those mercenary events listed on the back of my card (pictured above), I’ve yet to experience only a few to date. Regarding drawing caricatures at wedding receptions and birthday parties, I’ve been invited to none. Regarding corporate events and gender reveals, I’ve been invited to none. The same goes for retirement parties. But regarding festivals and street fairs and pet portraitures, I’ve been very busy!

My strategy to keep busy this autumn is to spend as many hours as practical in my favorite park, WASCANA CENTRE, caricature busking for practice and for profit!

 

 

BUSKER ALERT: BEWARE OR BE WARY OF THE KAMLOOPS FARMERS' MARKET!

For my summertime travels I had BIG PLANS for my caricature busking, my first buskspot being at the farmers’ market in Kamloops, British Columbia. (See the picture and words posted above!)

I LOVE KAMLOOPS! And I love Kamloops for a couple of reasons. Firstly, every summer I drive to Kamloops to hike and hang out with my daughter and granddaughter who reside there, and secondly, my early memories of Kamloops are most certainly hazed through romantic nostalgia.

In 1972, the summer of the BIG FLOOD of the North and South Thompson rivers, my cousin and I hitch-hiked from Regina to Kamloops to work in the sawmill. And what a summer that was! But that is another story for another time …

Anyway, back to the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET. The website for such proves that the Kamloops Farmers’ Market is not acephalous and it states that it loves having buskers. 

Factoid: These words that are posted on the Kamloops Farmers' Market website are just glib -- they sound great, but they are not sincere.

A few days before the day of the market and following the directions as presented on the website (shown above), I called and left a voice message, I typed an email, and sent a text. One day passed and it was crickets for a reply to any of the three messages I had left. Two days passed and still crickets. In the early morning on the day of the market, I sent another text directly to Greg, the market manager, to which he did reply. In summary, he stated that as a caricaturist, I would be listed as a “crafter” rather than as a “busker.” As a “crafter” I would have to formally apply four months in advance to sell my wares at the market, because, the acceptance of such "is quite a process.” But it did not matter anyway, since my place of residence was outside 100-mile radius of Kamloops, I would not qualify. The Kamloops Farmers’ Market is for locals only. To say the least, I was certainly addlepated!

From my experiences as a street caricaturist everywhere elsewhere from Kamloops, as a caricaturist, I have been a busker in Dublin, Ireland, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in Marrakech, Morocco, and several cities in Canada.

Hmmm. I googled the question: “Are Street caricaturists considered to be buskers?” And the answer, according to AI, “Yes, Street caricaturists are considered buskers. Busking encompasses a wide range of performance arts in public spaces, including drawing caricaturists.”

Hmmm. And then I wondered, if Manager Greg had ever been to other summer fairs and markets? Including the iconic and same-province Inner Harbor in Victoria, British Columbia, where the caricaturists are significant members of the buskerhood, performing for masses of tourists walking along the legendary boardwalk each summer day?! Hmmm. Only at the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET, it seems, that CARICATURISTS ARE NOT CONSIDERED TO BE BUSKERS!

Yes. This may be petty, but I shall continue, nonetheless. Now back in my home province of Saskatchewan, I have been very busy drawing caricatures, as a busker, at several farmers’ markets.

Here are some of my portraits from just last week from farmers’ markets in MOSSBANK and LIMERICK, two small resort towns in Saskatchewan, and my home city, REGINA:

And because I was dismissed from the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET, I headed for RIVERSIDE PARK, right in the heart of Kamloops and drew these fine people who were working the BIKE VALET:

Posing in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week:

In this blog post I want to send kudos to all those “other” farmers’ market managers who have and continue to warmly welcome me as a CARICATURIST-BUSKER, and have embraced me with a heartfelt smile and handshake, and without having the complications of a written application of any sort.

And to close, my point for writing this post was to hoist by his own petard, the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET manager. And I believe I have done just that!

 

LEARNING TO FLY -- BUT I AIN'T GOT WINGS!

 

Dear reader, please forgive my purloin of the Tom Petty song title while making my point that most anyone can learn to fly. Really. Because to me, RUNNING is synonymous with FLYING. I shall explain:

WALKING, according to Oxford Languages, means “to move at a regular pace by lifting and setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off the ground at once.”

RUNNING, according to Wikipedia, "is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground."

FLYING, according to Reddit, "is moving or capable of moving in the air."

So there you have it. Both Running and Flying mean being airborne.

My learning to fly began in 1977, the very day I finished reading THE COMPLETE BOOK OF RUNNING, by JAMES FIXX, published that same year by Random House. I was living in Kamloops, British Columbia, where I became a runner of the outdoor circuit at the very beautiful McArthur Island Park situated right in the middle of the city. Moving to Regina, Saskatchewan, where I am still a runner, but now at Wascana Park, also situated in the middle of the city.

Running has been good for me. To quote James Fixx, for me and my running, the fates have been exceedingly kind. In 1977 when I first started running, I was 26 years of age and running a minimum of five miles every day. Now I am 74 years old and running just three miles, three times a week.

And I wrote my thesis, ONE HUNDRED DAYS AT THE HOUSE OF CONCORD: An Ethnographic Study of Young Offenders in an Exercise Programme. For 100 days, in 1994, at 43 years of age, I gathered a group of male young offenders, between the ages of 15 and 20, and we ran a minimum of five miles each day from Monday to Friday on a course in Wascana Centre, Regina, SK. Yes. Learning to fly, literally, has been good for me.

But I have also learned to fly, figuratively, when it comes to BUSKING. When I started busking, I started clunky with a plethora of accessories. I had my guitar, I had the garb (bedizened in cowboy attire), and I also had my music stand and my cheat sheets! Having to travel about by foot with the added music stand makes busking bush-league and almost immotile, whereas now busking with just my guitar and harp is rather lightweight and very portable.

Over the years I have developed the confidence to thrum without the cheat sheets and even move on to other musical instruments. Guitar is still my favorite, but I have busked many times with my banjo and my didgeridoo. And then even moving on from other instruments I have developed my busking skills as a pencil portrait street artist, and now as a Sharpie marker caricaturist. Practicing with my pencil, after drawing hundreds of portraits, my fastest times would range from 20 – 25 minutes. Practicing now with my Sharpie, sacrificing quality for speed, it takes me just five to seven minutes! Not-so-strangely, I’ve changed only my busking instruments, certainly not my milieu.

Regarding busking, I learned to walk with my guitar; I learned to run with my pencil; I have now learned to fly with my Sharpie! By flying I mean traveling light, conveying just a canvas knapsack filled with a “MIX MEDIA 11 X 14 inch” CANSON sketchpad at a cost of $25.95 and several Sharpie fine print permanent black and gray markers at a cost of $2.00 apiece.

Marching without wings in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week are these two lovely ANGELS, from Toronto, Canada: