I’ve blogged now and again about the unethical practices of some (that’s SOME, not ALL) street caricature artists who steal the work of others from books or the Internet and display them as if they were their own. I’d like that practice to go away, but I certainly wouldn’t want to see this happen:

New York Seeks Limits on Art Vendors in Parks

According to the linked article from the New York Times, NYC’s Park and Recreations Dept. has proposed to limit the “number of vendors allowed in parts of Central Park and all of Union Square Park, Battery Park and the High Line Park.” The proposal would limit the number of artists selling visual arts and printed texts to a total of 81 (given on a first come-first-served basis), where over 300 now operate in those areas. There would also be limits on the dimensions of tables and the proximity to things like monuments and benches.

The proponents of the idea say the number of vendors is overwhelming the parks, creating pedestrian movement issues and hazards by blocking sidewalks and walkways. There are also complaints that too many vendors don’t sell real art, but cheap mass-produced souvenirs, but I didn’t see anything in the proposal that addresses what is being sold.

Those critical of the proposal say it will ruin what makes New York City such a bastion of art and free expression… and thin out their wallets of course.

I can understand the idea that there must be some limits as to how many of these vendors can be set up at a time… after all the parks are there for people to enjoy and if they are packed fence to fence with people selling tiny statue of liberties and “I heart NYC” shirts it would be pretty hard to enjoy. Still, the street vendors are a part of NYC’s charm, and it would be a shame to see them too severly limited. Also, I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue with 300 vendors trying to show up to be first-come-first-served for one of only 81 spots. Violence? No doubt. Better to use some kind of advanced random lottery licensing system to avoid that kind of debacle.

Better yet, make all street caricature artists submit samples for approval that they prove they actually drew themselves! That would weed out about 150 of the 300 current street artists right there!

Last week my good friend, illustrator and caricaturist Ed Steckley, called me to chat and told me about a cool painting get together he and some fellow pals had planned for the weekend. Ed was going to host a watercolor mini-class by MAD illustrator Hermann Mejia for just he and another MAD artist, Ray Alma. He invited me to tag along.

Hello frequent flyer mile awards.

I cashed in a few of those frequent flyer miles and spent the weekend in NYC. On Saturday we bummed around Brooklyn, and checked out Hermann’s show at RocketShip comics on Smith St. See pics of the show below.

Wow. I had seen a few of Hernann’s orginals before but these were really spectacular.

What a rare opportunity to be shown some watercolor techniques by a true master. The “class” was terrific and I will post about it and some of the work I did tommorrow.

Meanwhile if you are in the NYC area stop by Rocketship Comics in Brooklyn to see some amazing work by an amazing artist.

Just a short post today as we are travellng back home after our short but fun trip to NYC. Yesterday we spent in Manhattan, visiting the MAD offices, the Frick Museum, walking about the city and having a nice dinner.

Stopping by the MAD offices is almost a must of course. When you work and communicate all the time with people but never see them there is a certain disjointed feeling, so whenever I come to NYC I always pop my head into the office to say hello.

The lobby at the MAD Offices

Two usual idiots

Prints of some of the famous works of art MAD has mocked

Original Norman Mingo painting… the only one he did in oils for MAD

Another original Mingo from a famous back cover ad parody

Me and Dick DeBartolo aka “MAD’s Maddest Writer”

We finally visited the Frick Museum (actually called the “Frick Collection”), something The Lovely Anna has been wanting to do for a long time. It’s a relatively small collection of mainly French and Dutch renaissance and masters paintings, with some sculpture and 18th century furniture thrown in. I would highly recommend it for many reasons. First, even if you get bored at museums this one is very small and easy to walk through. I took my time and saw all of it in about 3 hours. That’s about the limit of my attention span for that knd of thing. Second, the work is awesome in it, and as it’s all tradtitional masters work by the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyke, Whistler and many others, there is no painting there that makes you wonder why anyone would think it was a good piece of art… these are no brainers in that department. Finally the “museum” is actually H.C. Frick‘s home (he was a steel magnate who was a rabid art collector) and the art is arranges with the sculptures and furniture in intimate, natural rooms very unlike the stuffy, roped off sterility of a huge museum.

Entrance to the Frick

Highly illegal picture of the interior garden of the Frick