Mike Carp

Anyone who has lived in Reno for awhile may remember seeing George (I think that is his name?) skateboarding around the Meadowood Mall parking lot. I decided to try doing some memory sketches of George. The drawing on the left shows my first attempt, and the one on the right is what I came up with after about a half dozen other sketches.

The first sketch is the result of simply trying to get something down on paper. From there, I look for what seems to be wrong (in this case, pretty much everything but the hair) and I try something different until it looks right. I don’t know if the end result looks anything like the real George, but it is closer to how I remember him. I think the one on the left looks more like he could be an actor in a really crappy TV movie based on George’s life.

ABOUT GEORGE

Personally, I really don’t know anything about George. He was just a guy I would see while driving by in the mall parking lot or somewhere else in that area. He always had knee pads, and he had some kind of apparatus on his head. I never got a good look at what was on his head or what he really looks like because 1) I was usually in a moving car, and 2) it isn’t polite to stare. At any rate, he was sort of like a local celebrity in a way.  George rocks.

I don’t know very much about this guy, but here is what I know so far:

1. He is a robot, not a guy in a robot suit.
2. Despite the nautical appearance of the headgear, he has yet to be seen underwater.

I won’t attempt to list the things I don’t know; that list would be seemingly endless, just like the tube attached to the robot’s head.

Since I expounded on all things pertaining to foodles yesterday (at considerable length), I have found that I seem to be resisting any urge to sketch a hamburger. I do most of my sketching at work while I’m holding on the phone or waiting for my computer to load something. However, today my desire to deviate from the normal mindless doodle ended up wreaking havoc on my productivity.

It started, as it often does, with a subconscious burger foodle beginning with the bun. But then I realized what I was doing, and I decided to shake things up by having the remaining components of the burger FLOAT IN THE AIR. WHOOA! I tried to get back to work, but then all I could think about was, “Why are they floating? That just doesn’t make sense!”

I realized I would never be able to focus until I had some closure on the issue. I concluded that magnets were involved in some way. Then, before I knew it, the floating burger components ended up being a guy’s head. And he was passing a business card to someone, but I wasn’t sure what sort of clientèle a burger head would be networking with. So the card was modified into (what else?) A GUN.

I know that guns are not to be taken lightly, so I had to make sure he had a darn good reason to be packing that kind of heat. Anyway, this thought process continued until it consumed about seven hours three minutes of my valuable work day.

First of all, if you think this post isn’t Sasquatch-related, you’re mistaken. Each burger shown in this post is made from USDA certified Sasquatch meat. The hot dogs, however, are just plain hot dogs. They might have a variety of animals (including the occasional manatee or narwhal) but otherwise they don’t consist of anything that is cryptozoological in nature.

At any rate, I guess I shouldn’t delay this any longer. It is time I come clean with the world and confess: I draw hamburgers. Lots of them. I’m not sure why I do it – it’s not like I think burgers are that great or anything. But if I have a pen and some paper and I zone out in a meeting, when I snap back into reality I will find my paper is covered with burgers. What is more alarming is that, more or less, it is the same hamburger. Sure, sometimes the burger will have wings, and sometimes it will have tentacles (or less successful variations). But be assured, it will always, always have the same sesame seed bun, tomatoes, lettuce, and sasquatch meat patty in every single drawing.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I have a few more thoughts on food and art. Tacos, nachos, and enchiladas are definitely superior to hamburgers and hot dogs. But are they any fun to draw? I don’t have any answers…I’m just tossing that out in a rhetorical, existential sort of way for you, the reader, to think about and meditate on. Meanwhile, when was the last time you picked up a copy of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs? I had this book when I was a youngling, and I had completely forgotten about it until a couple of months ago when I came across a copy at a bookstore. If you haven’t read this book, then…well…you should be in jail (since the courts don’t recognize this as an legitimate offense, you’ll need to go out and commit a real crime so you can get what you deserve).

The book actually leads me to my last observation about food and art. On one level, it was nice to reconnect with familiar images from my childhood. But on another level, being that foodles have had a place in my doodles for quite some time, it was especially nice to see an accomplished work of art with the same subject matter. Ron Barrett illustrated the book with intricate line work and cross-hatching that isn’t really seen any more. The renderings are amazing, and I can’t think of a better way to depict an ominous storm front of hamburgers, giant killer donuts, or a striking sunset of gelatin on the horizon. It also made me realize that it would be nice to stretch my skills and try something ambitious instead of mindlessly doodling foodles out of my head while holed up in a cubicle.

By the way, I recommend reading the meatball book while you still can. It appears it is in the works to be released as a major motion picture in 2010. I’m not entirely comfortable with the fact that Ron Barrett’s line work and cross-hatching will be replaced with CGI. Bah! Well, I don’t want to end this long post on a bummer, so:

Not even the most cold-hearted, card carrying communist would want to punch this happy-go-lucky sasquatch in the face.  Although some might want to punch me in the face when they find out I doodled this during Sunday School.

Whenever I get distracted or lose focus, my mind automatically reverts to this image.