Tag: politics

Drawing In China: Politics and Women’s Rights

Recently, I was invited to travel to China to speak about editorial cartooning and women’s rights. It was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. My host was the China Women’s Film Festival.  They believe that art is a way to express important concerns and can do so in a powerful way. The people I met are brave and were very friendly, asking so many questions as we discussed how to express injustice in both our countries.  

I wrote about the experience and share all the drawings I did while there in a post on my Medium page, here.  And I explain the context and the people I met in a post called Under One Moon,  here. I also show some of the feminist cartoons I showed in my talks in China. 

Please go visit my Medium site to read and see more.  

 

Drawing ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ For CBS

I love my job. Live drawing is taking me to all kinds of places, and last night it took me to the Ed Sullivan Theater to live draw the Late Show with Stephen Colbert for CBS This Morning. I am a huge fan, so it was beyond great to be there. Didn’t get to meet Mr. Colbert, but loved the show and loved being in the theater (with so much history!)  Charlie Rose was one of his guests– Charlie is a co- host of  CBS This Morning , the news show I live draw regularly for. 
 While outside the Broadway theater, waiting for my producer to arrive, I crossed  the street, thinking  I’d draw the building.  As soon as I began on my iPad,  I felt overwhelmed with the detail and knew I had little time to get it done properly. So I put the tablet away. But my instincts told me I had to draw the building, so I grabbed my iPhone (a figure of speech because it is pretty much always in my hand) and did the line drawing on my phone with my finger and tweeted it out. The Late Show retweeted it!  After the show, my producer asked me to color it in, so I did the color on my phone. 

 

The show was very fast paced, as you can imagine. I was standing in the back, behind the audience, and drew as much as I could. The band was so great, Stephen was spot on with his political humor, and Charlie was funny and seemed very relaxed as usual. It was great to see the other guests as well–Jessica Williams is hysterical! 
Wherever I live draw,  when I am done, I always feel I should have drawn more, particularly behind-the-scenes people and things.  I hope they invite me back!  

 

The Politics Of Women And Clothing

I drew this sketch recently for my New Yorker’s Daily Cartoon submission. They didn’t take it, but I wanted to publish it anyway. It’s in response to the woman in Saudi Arabia recently who posted a video of herself in a mini skirt and subsequently got arrested. She was eventually released. While we in this country are aghast at what is policed re women in Middle Eastern countries, it is important to remember what Western countries do, and how they police what women should and shouldn’t wear.

Women are told what to wear and if we are not wearing what a culture deems “correct,” we are “corrected,” so to speak. Society is beginning to notice how wrong victim blaming is, when a woman who is sexually assaulted while wearing a short skirt is?—?in many parts of the country?—?accused of “asking for it.” CBS News reported last week that in the US Congress, sleeveless dresses are not considered “proper business attire,” and thus women are open to being barred from entry if so clothed. In response, Representative Martha McSally wore a sleeveless dress in Congress, in violation of a rule that women are not to do so; and there was even more pushback. There are more examples, and many of them are much more subtle.

Every day is a political day for women around the globe. Here’s to more pushback.

Trump’s Promises: His First 100 Days

100 Dayscopy3_640X480We are approaching President Trump’s first 100 days in office?—?a traditional milestone used to judge how a new president is doing. It seems as if he is hell-bent on a) trying to push through promises he made b) creating drama to distract us from the fact he has not done a whole lot, all the while promising more than he could deliver.

In an AP interview , Trump claimed “I’m almost there on most items.” He’s not. In an interview with CBS News, President Trump said he thought being president would “be a lot easier.” Well, it’s not.

For some fact checking of his claims on progress in the first 100 days of his presidency, read this.

I drew the above gif for CBS This Morning/CBS News, and here is the tweet.