Another Strook with something I've read, drawn, and listened to.
Reading & Listening
Almost 20 years ago (wow!), a colleague (also a blues musician) gave me the book R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country. This classic introduced me to blues music and its most important names. Ten years ago, I traveled through America with two friends to discover the origins of this music. We traveled via Chess Records in Chicago to the country music of Nashville, then on to Sun Studios & Stax Records in Memphis. In Mississippi, we naturally tried to find Robert Johnson and visited Dockery Farms, also known as the birthplace of the blues. In New Orleans, jazz could be found everywhere on the streets. In Austin, we ended up back in the present with the SXSW Music Festival.
Crumb's book has always been a wonderful reference work for reading about these blues and country legends, but I knew nothing about Crumb himself.
In Crumb - an illustrator's life, Dan Nadel describes how R. Crumb became a legendary cartoonist and illustrator in the 1960s and 1970s with his satirical and controversial drawings. Even without any knowledge of his underground comics, I find Crumb fascinating to read about because of his uncompromising loyalty to himself. For example, despite being in financial straits, he refused to design an album cover for The Rolling Stones because he thought Mick Jagger was a poser.
He therefore has little interest in contemporary music. Crumb was a neurotic collector of 78s, pre-war records. Blues, country, African music, 1920s music. His collecting frenzy lasted 60 years and his collection became immense. Hence his blues project, which was originally released in the 1980s not as a book but as trading cards. I had expected to read more about his love of music in the book, but Crumb's own life was probably enough for Nadel to summarize.
Crumb's life reads like a recent history of America, with all its rough edges, poverty, and successes.
Read more about Crumb and his biography in the book review by NRC.
Drawing
Rereading R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country inspired me to try something completely different with my own drawings. Namely, drawing my own heroes in natural history.
A challenge, because I normally stick to the animal kingdom. I also wanted to try a new shading technique (cross-hatching). Because Darwin is my greatest hero, and there are good photos of him, I started by sketching one of his first portrait photos.
It was a complete failure. That's also good to share. And in a way, it's funny that Darwin looks like an ape.
What do you think? Back to animals or keep going?
See you next week!