I recently received this e-mail from Marco, a school teacher in Riverside County. It really made my day, so I wanted to share it...

Kazu,

I am a seventh grade art teacher and illustrator and wanted to let you know that your work has inspired a whole new generation of artists. I approach teaching with an attitude of kids will learn only if they're interested. It's really hard to get 12-13 year old "at risk" kids interested in DaVinci or Monet, but show them a Daisy Kutter pin-up and use that to explain composition and they're hooked. It's very difficult to find comics that are age appropriate nowadays (i can't believe i just said that) but its nice to know that there are others out there who know that good storytelling and characters whom people of any age can relate to are what our medium is all about.

I also wanted to mention the flight forum, the work on there is great and the feedback is always beneficial to anyone reading. I hope to have a site up soon, so i can begin posting some of my comics, until then i'll just enjoy being inspired by others on the site.
Keep up the good work!

-marco

 

Thanks for the kind words, Marco. Letters like this make me think a lot...

Sometimes I wonder whether I ever should have moved past my cartooning, into something more "serious", something that might have garnered more attention from the fine arts crowd, or the scholars, or the established artists of our time and from years back. Maybe I could increase my perceived value should I start doing landscape paintings and portraiture. I love the work of John Singer Sargent, of Van Gogh, of DaVinci and Monet. And then I begin thinking about what other people think is the good stuff, I think about what everyone else wants to see, what anyone else thinks is acceptable, what everyone thinks is cool. What makes you a "real" artist? What makes you an "artist"?

And then I start thinking about all the stuff that I think is neat, all the things I loved when I was little, and after that I'm usually too busy drawing I don't have time to think anymore...