A note from Shannon - Sketch's Wife

On the date shown below my then future husband printed this letter and handed it to me. I am not sure where he got it from on the internet but if I didn't know any better I'd swear I had written it myself. For those of you that know my husband personally, you will all be nodding your heads in a "yes" fashion as you are reading. I don't know who this woman was but it's all true. All of it. We weren't even engaged yet when he handed this letter to me and I still married him - he brings so much laughter and enjoyment into my life, oh, and a little frustration too, and yes he doodles on everything. He, for some reason has trouble drawing on a clean white sheet of paper. He would rather take an envelope from today's mail and draw on the back then pull out a brand new sheet (trust me, the bank account appreciates this one!). He's experimented with different kinds of writing utensils and paper and believe you me I get an earful if I grab one of his "pens". It's something I'll never understand.  When I need to write something down I grab whatever's closest unless I'm in his office - there's a writing pen, drawing pen, outline pen, #2 pencils, mechanical pencils, different size tips on the markers, on and on - I'll get a pen in a different room just to avoid any confusion. I have a stash of what he calls "garbage" that I keep -- that garbage I treasure because especially at those moments in time when he is drawing on the back of a paper placement from the A & W, I know he is truly in his element. When he gets in a rut I bring out some of those and remind him of who he is and what he is capable of. He has so much talent I want the whole world to see what he does....so, welcome to the website....please note he is adding and changing things regularly so check in on "us" every once in awhile!  Thanks for stopping!  Shannon a.k.a....Kay

Help! I Married a Cartoonist

Dateline: 9/24/2000

So you married a cartoonist. It’s a tough life, eh? Being married to someone with this passion for drawing cartoons and telling stories with an imaginary cast of characters can make you feel like a third arm, not always needed. Meanwhile the need to create can drive your spouse to spend hours alone in the studio, door closed, maybe with the music blaring. What are you going to do?

In the interests of marital harmony, I’d like to offer these suggestions to the cartoonist’s spouse. Dear woman (for by far the majority of cartoonists are men) you have certain inalienable rights implied in the marital contract. In addition to defending your own rights, there are habits you can encourage in your spouse that will help their pursuit of a career, whether they perceive it that way or not.

First, it is important that you understand the drive to create. A cartoonist has this need that is only satisfied by putting pen to paper and making ideas manifest. It provides a psychological release, a form of therapy. If a cartoonist is not permitted to exercise this outlet, he win feel pent up, too contained. For many cartoonists, the cartoon is their most potent form of expression. It is where they let their feelings out.

You married him because you knew he had passion, right? Maybe he wrote you handmade greetings with adorable hand-drawn illustrations, expressing his feelings for you. He made you laugh, with his funny voices, comical faces, and his unusual knack for turning the most mundane moments into sublime humor with just the twitch of an eyebrow.

Hopefully this is not all past tense. But at some point the cartoonist wants to get serious about his cartooning. He’d like to try and make a living at it. When this happens, there is a tendency for the passion that was a part of his life to be funneled into this newfound professionalism.

Don’t let that happen! His gift for cartooning springs from his zest for life, and should not be cordoned off into the professional zone. If your man is to succeed with his cartooning, it has to flow from the whole of his life. If he is becoming dour or morose, he’s altogether too serious about the cartooning biz. Yank him out of his lair. Take him for a ride in the car; get him some fresh air. Remind him that he’s already got a wonderful life with you and he shouldn’t neglect it in the quest for success.

Quitting the Day Job

Your cartoonist may have been doodling since early childhood. If he’s kept it up, he has managed to do so outside of a regular job. Maybe he works in an art-related career like design or architecture. Maybe he is a DJ on the local radio station, or a writer for the paper.

He might be a computer programmer or a lawyer, or a worker on the line at the local factory. He may have skills in a very marketable trade. He is probably gainfully employed. It is less common, but perhaps he is getting by with a general freelance career in illustration or graphic design.

But when he gets the bug to “go pro,” things can take a dramatic turn. If your cartoonist wants to make this a full-time pursuit, he will have to leave the paying gig behind and cross that great divide without a net. If you are a working spouse, your paycheck will provide some illusory sense of security. But if you watch the checking account balance from month to month, you’ll begin to see that one paycheck does not go as far as two. (Yes, you are probably the only one paying close attention to that checkbook balance.)

How long should your husband be allowed to pursue the full-time dream without clear financial remuneration? This is where your skills at negotiation come to the rescue. If he is staying home to chase the dream, there are some chores he can manage at the same time. Maybe it is shopping, or watching the kids. He may be amenable to doing laundry or other housework. Consider with him how women from generations past have held a household together with such work, without a paycheck to provide incentive. Your man will resist these overtures, but your powers of persuasion are formidable. Convince him that it need not take much time from his “professional career” and provides the balance and wholeness he needs to succeed.

Another point of negotiation is the timeframe. You and your cartoonist should work out an expectation about how long he will pursue the cartooning muse. It may be six months, or a year, or longer. But it should be a specific length of time. Agree that at the halfway point the two of you will have a heart-to-heart and evaluate how it is going. It is important that you voice your feelings and concerns-your cartoonist really does want to know how you feel, even if he finds it threatening.

This is a contact. In addition to time, there will be some costs associated with the quest for success. Compared to some endeavors, the financial demands of cartooning are refreshingly modest. Still, your cartoonist may need a computer upgrade, or the larger set of Design Markers, or a more ergonomically correct office chair. Postage costs can add up quickly. Specialized software packages, monthly ISP bills, phone bills. Be the voice of reason for your cartoonist and work together to set a realistic dollar value on what this pursuit is going to cost.

Payback Time

It is also your right to claim a payback. Because you are providing substantial underwriting for your cartoonist’s great leap, he owes you big time. You should both expect and agree that payback time will come. You have your own muses after all, and maybe some time you will want to be the one chasing a dream without a paycheck. Not only will this give your man a greater incentive to excel, he will come to recognize your own needs for expression too. You should both be certain that your time will come.

As the end of the time period (or the dollar limit) approaches, the “cartooning contract” is up for renewal. Evaluate the successes and failures; probably there is a measure of both. Renewal is not a given, but quitting altogether is not an option.

You will probably need to remind your cartoonist (more than once) that he cannot continue to do this work forever without concrete financial returns. In our capitalistic economy, the value of work is measured in dollars. If the marketplace decrees that the work is of no value, then it cannot reasonably continue.

Cartooning is an expressive communication loved by all. But for the practicing cartoonist, it must also be a business, and must be performed in a business-like manner. This is difficult to grasp for a cartoonist, who’s greatest desire is for his work to be known and loved the world over. The nuts and bolts of how that happens tend to get overlooked. In addition to the creative release, there is the labeling and mailing, the calls and emails, the promotional campaign and the sales pitch, the record keeping and accounting, taxes and filing. A cartoonist who cannot manage this part of the business cannot manage a business. If your cartoonist cannot see this, it may be your difficult task to show him, as gently as you can.

On the other hand, you may find that your cartoonist has a real gift for this work. If so, then persistence will pay off. The work will begin to pay for itself; the dollar amounts of the checks will gradually grow. It is still possible in this day and age that a cartoonist can carve out a special niche for his work and create a decent demand for it.

More likely, the income from cartooning will only be so-so, and the day will come when your man returns to plying his trade for a living; either part-time (allowing him to continue a part-time cartooning biz) or full-time. But you should know from the outset he will never give up the cartooning for good. In a few years, or a few decades, he will probably get the bug again. The market will have changed in some significant way. His talent will have increased. His maturity will serve better to temper his blind ambition. And you will be there to slap some sense into him whenever he needs it.

Enjoy your cartoonist. He is a rare and lively breed, and yours is like no other. May your marriage be full of laughter and fooling around. May he always keep your life unpredictable and anything but boring. May he always doodle on the soles of your shoes. Take heart that you are in it together ‘til death do you part, and he knows it.