August Arts Activities for Sioux Falls

Here's a few upcoming artistic happenings going on in Sioux Falls you should know about:

THIS FRIDAY (Aug. 1) the downtown galleries and businesses are open 5 to 8 for First Night events. The Artist League is having a reception at the Horse Barn Arts Center from 5 until 8. Musical guest is Rich Show from 6 to 8.

THIS SAT (Aug. 2) there are openings for an oil/acrylic painting class with Gary Hartenhoff at the Horse Barn. It's a three hour class starting at 9:00 a.m. Cost is $40.00 You'll need to bring materials. More details and to register is 977-2002.

Beginning Watercolor Classes with Marian Henjum - Eight Weeks, 2 hour sessions is $200.00 plus $95.00 supply cost. You can call 336-7629 for more details.

Ces who? A Cartoonist You Should Know

For at least a year or so now, I've been aware of cartoonist Ces (Francesco) Marciuliano. He took over cartooning "Sally Forth" and has a great web strip "Medium Large". He's currently a week long substitute cartoonist for "Bizarro" and has a great blog.

Whole Lot of Shaking Going On!

Two of our Sioux Falls cartoonists now reside in CA/LA area. Matt Daigle and Lamont Hunt. Hope both are okay following that earthquake yesterday!

The Power of Twitter

Today I stopped by the laptop to see if any of my pals had signed onto Twitter. Ventured over to the public timeline and saw posts about an earthquake as it was happening in California! Went to Google News, CNN, nothing....... but people are sharing quickly where power was out, etc.

Quite an amazing thing. I'm sure going to miss it, as I'm sure Twitter is blocked in our Internet access when I return to work.

LuAnn is coming to South Dakota!

No, no, no, not this Luann .... (by Greg Evans)

THIS LuAnn! (by Frank Bolle and Lisa Trusiani)

(I have to laugh at the look of concern that comes over Tommie's face as South Dakota is mentioned! Perhaps she thinks the Badlands are really BAD!)

In South Dakota, we don't get the comic strip Apartment 3G in the Argus Leader, nor the Daily Republic, etc. I happened to know about it thanks to the snarky commentary over at "The Comics Curmudgeon" blog. The strip is about the goings on with three roomates and it's a soap opera type storyline like Rex Morgan and Mary Worth.

One can't help but get a kick out of ol' Margo McGee and her selfish antics. Redheaded Tommie resides at A3G, her bland life is picking up with a little romance once in awhile. Blonde and naive roomate LuAnn is a painter who is realizing some success and who has a druggie boyfriend, Alan. (LuAnn doesn't realize he's a druggie, BTW.) She also has hick-type relatives. so I laughed out loud when the storyline now places LuAnn as FROM SOUTH DAKOTA. It appears LuAnn comes from a ranch, which does place her West River. I'll be eyeing the research that the writer/cartoonists do about the adventures.

Friends and Family Framing at Michaels in Sioux Falls

Okay cartoonists and art lovers in Sioux Falls -- I've dropped a ton of $$$ at Michael's Framing Shop these many years and am on the "list" of friends and family. They recently called and offering 60% off custom framing until Aug. 2nd to "friends and family". (I think). If you read this blog and need something framed and want a 60% discount -- go there and say you are a friend of Jackie's. ;-) If they say "Jackie who?" ... they should remember the cartoons framed.

Cartoonist Kurt Holdorf's Interactive Site

I am just amazed and delighted by all the little and fun details our own Kurt Holdorf puts into his site. If you go to this link and click on the bottom drawers, you'll find some of his cartoon work hidden away. Nicely done Kurt!!!

Exciting Times for SD Bloggers

As stated before, there was some dicussion over Twitter *and* community journalism discussed at the Blognic. As a result, there is some work being done to unite and Blogroll and promote the SD Blogging Community. More to come on this I'm sure.....

While not a cartoon, certain events at the Blognic were humorous.... such as Todd's taking Rebecca's pink kayak for a spin.

** additional note, thanks to Corey's post ... there was another SD Blogger gathering that same weekend. I'm biased, but think we had the better time.

Regional Blogger Picnic

Today was a really neat event ... a regional blogger picnic ("Blognic", as Todd calls it) at Lake Herman and hosted by Todd Epp (SDWatch) and Corey Heidelberger (Madville Times) It was inspiring, informative, and incredibly fun. Bob Schwartz (Politics and Hypocrisy) and his family, and Rebecca Terk (Flying Tomato Farms) were there. Scott Ehrisman (SouthDaCola) and myself represented the cartooning blogging community.

Todd presented a discussion regarding Twitter -- it's possibilities and Corey led a discussion in community journalism ... and it certainly leads to open ended exploration and more discussion on how to make this blogging thing be more participatory and interactive.

It was a great afternoon and I learned much and really had fun getting to know some really neat people in our South Dakota blogosphere.

BTW, you can follow my Twitter's at:
http://twitter.com/jackilope13

Academia Waltz!

My dear pal, Marilyn, attended UT and knew of the school newspaper cartoonist. She also knew some of the people he modeled his cartoon characters after. What fun discovering his strip, Academia Waltz and just the character development and to see how his style and writing started taking shape.

New Yorker Cover Commentary/Discussion

Much conversation is had over the New Yorker cover, in which Barry Blitt illustrates almost every smear and untruth that others have tried to tag onto Sen. Obama.

I think the problem I have with it is that there are folks out there that literally eat up and believe the smears and untruths ... and the illustration doesn't really point to WHO is putting the smears out there. One only has to recall some of the interviews of voters during the primary season to realize that not everyone is really up on doing acurate research on the candidates.

If the point was to genuinely point out that these are smears and untrue, perhaps the imagry coming out from a cigar puff of Rush Limbaugh? Perhaps a caricature of Fox's E.D. Hill, for her outrageous comment about the "terrorist fist jab"? Why not focus and mock the sources of the falsehoods, rather than reinforce the imagry?

I'm open to conversation on this. I'm not feeling outrage, but just don't think it's a very effective or fair illustration. Perhaps when I see a good one about McCain and some falsehood that is being spread.........?

Traveling Children's Book Illustration Exhibit - Little Golden Books

This just looks absolutely magical and wonderful.


One of my favorite books from childhood, which I think was a Golden Book, was one about a Nanny Goat that took care of all sorts of different animal children. I'd love to see that book again and look at the illustrations. I've hunted and tried to do research on Nannygoats + childrens book, can't find it. Another book I'd check out over and over again in Kindergarten was about Puff the Magic Dragon with limited colors involving violet and orange ... and I haven't found that one either.

Lennon Cartoon/Doodles and Mashup Video

Beatles (Lennon), Cheap Trick, and Cartoons ... gotta love it.