Picking up and carrying on...

As an artist, I was sort of thrown by the Presidential Election.
I always wanted to have a woman as president. I liked Hillary. I am disappointed.
I am concerned about the Russian influence and Trump's campaign promises and corruption. I care about racism, the environment, wildlife, health care, education, etc., etc., etc.

It took me some time to figure out how to proceed. I wanted to make larger work but still work from life. I wanted to work with animals. I did not want to make nihilistic sci-fi or political scenes. I want to paint reality.

I finally stumbled on an idea that excites me. I can still work with animals and realism yet subtly get my political feelings in there, yet make powerful, positive paintings (for those who don't get to vote).

At the same time, I threw myself into drawing political cartoons as a way to deal with the day-to-day annoyances that was the news. Humor is a great way to deal with things that upset you. I am a firm believer that the more of any art you make, the better. I made a Facebook page and started throwing them up there. I thought my friends could make captions for them. I am not a writer and they are very hard to write!
In some Facebook secret group, I noticed a woman who seemed to have lots of ideas. I asked her if she wanted to help me make cartoons. She did. Her name, not her real name, is Kat Hatz and she lives in Chicago. We collaborate on Facebook messenger. She comes up with most of the ideas and I draw them. We futz over the tag lines (trying to learn how to be funny).
At some point I'll figure out where to put these cartoons, but you can also visit our Facebook site called "Laughaboutit". Feel free to add your own tag line, and "like" the page if you want to see more. Here's one inspired by the Healthcare debate.