Mike Carp

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:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 am and is filed under sketches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.