Another Pic on the Wall

As a kid, I was a very prolific artist: I jotted down one drawing after the other. A lot of them are still in my possession, because they’ve been preserved by my parents in four bulging portfolios.

A special type of drawings were the congratulatory pictures I made on occasion of birthdays in our family – parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins: everyone had to have their exclusive hand-made birthday picture. I’d estimate that, between age 7 and 12, I must have produced more than a hundred such drawings!

With time, my zeal slackened and I confined that tradition to my parents and siblings and then to milestone birthdays. The production of birthday pictures waned but it’s never gone for good, for I still grab pencil, paper and colours now and then and set to work so that I can present someone close to me with a personalised birthday cartoon or a tongue-in-cheek portrait. Just like I did when my friend Gregor invited me to his birthday party the other day.

Gregor has been the guitar hero in the little town of my youth, and in later years his band »Kapelsky« attained quite some acclaim and success. He still makes his living as a professional musican and music teacher. So, I didn’t have to ponder long about the subject of the birthday picture I was going to draw for him. (I couldn’t refrain from also adding a mocking jab at AI again.)

Just two weeks ago, Steffi and Guido, also close friends of mine, sent me a photo showing that a caricature I’d drawn had found a beautiful place in their new house. And when I read this message it occurred to me that by now, there are several homes here and there in Germany where you can find a drawing signed »Heyoka« hanging on the wall. – It’s a wonderful thought.