Sunday February 28, 2010 at 12:00AM
There are certain images that define my childhood. If someone were to make a movie about me, and there were to be a cheesy photo montage, there would most definitely be an image of a young elementary aged girl in her pajamas scouring the Sunday Times for the weekly caricature by Al Hirshfeld. He opened me up to art for many reasons, he was a caricaturist so his drawings were essentially cartoons that greatly appealed to a child. He was best known for his portraits of celebrities, musicians and Broadway stars and I was a big fan of music early on so I loved his drawings of the Beatles and Jerry Garcia. Hirshfeld also cleverly hid his daughter’s name Nina in the images and it was a popular game among his fans to hunt for the hidden name in the crook of an elbow or the curls of the hair.
It always impressed me that Hirshfeld could created such a bold statement using only black and white lines. His pictures made such satirical statements with such simple lines and it continues to amaze and inspire me today. Check out his work.