Creating caricature art is such Joy! Al Hirschfeld's work is my main inspiration, of course. I had the pleasure of meeting him at his 90th birthday celebration in June 1993 at The Algonquin Hotel. The surprise was being invited to his house for lunch the next day. Seeing the stairway mural of the stars from the Silver Screen's early days and his studio where he worked while perched in a barber's chair was unforgettable. As we ascended the stairs to the third floor studio, faded original drawings were hung in broken, sagging frames. I wondered about the value of these, since the current dollar value of a signed print was well into the thousands. In the photos above, my hair was at an awkward stage of growing long, and this engineer's cap kept it out of my face. There is no rational explanation for the rest of my outfit.
The drawings and paintings below were created for a wide variety of purposes. Some were done as commissioned paintings (Bette Midler) and some as logos (the line drawing of The Brunette Gourmette.) The caricatures of Yetta Young and Queen Aishah were done in early 2009 as cast gifts for a "Vagina Molologues" performance. The rest were done just for the fun of it! A caricature of Sherri Shepherd is currently in the works, and will be posted once it's complete. She and I shared the stage in talent competitions in the early 1990s. She was usually the winner.
