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Shortly thereafter, he started showing me the images of his vision and style, like, the flattening of the perspective of the doghouse, the calligraphic slashing of Woodstock's nest, Schroeder's toy piano, the black pulsation within Lucy's hairdo, and, in my opinion, his confident and heroic rain lines. By the end of our day, in his kindness, I was given a substantial quantity of his special ink pen nibs. That afternoon was to be the template for the rest of our relationship. From that day forward, his name was Sparky.
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Charles Schulz ink drawing (detail.)
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The pen nibs, however, were not the only thing that he shared with me. Sparky had been deeply concerned with a sensitive notion that the art world did not recognize his art as art. This was something that truly bothered him. With his massive output of brilliant work, one would know it was absurd, too absurd, because it would have meant that the art world had missed that he had shown us a new and different way of seeing. Had the art world lost its art manners? Certainly, I was taken aback at first by this, but had no idea that his insecurity would eventually become one of the central matters of my art, that still continues to seriously fuel my work to this very day.
I must take this chance, while I have it, to persuade you to take a moment and look very closely at his art, in particular, the structure of his ink line. It is too often referred to, as Sparky himself did as well, as just 'a wiggly line', which is usually thought of as a line that quickly continues to move back and forth, or left and right. During the many incredible opportunities that I had to see the creation of this line, I can promise you that it was very much more.
Most of Sparky's lines were made with ink and a two-pronged, split, sharp end quill pen that was very flexible and malleable. The thickness and thinness in each ink line was determined by the pulsating pressure of his hand onto the ink filled prongs, that would push open and shut to release the ink. So actually, these strong confident 'wiggle lines' may have been a reflection of his energy, and more importantly, an autobiographical mark of the moment.
After a few years of this unique relationship, I was producing supplemental drawings for magazine covers and interiors, and special projects, imitating the 'Schulz-like style' in the manner of which he had taught me. He trusted me to do it and I did it; I didn't let him down. I would continue to create these drawings, on and off, for about the next 17 years.
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