"The only thing I regret in my life is never having made comics."
—Pablo Picasso (according to an unsourced quote found online)

Assuming that the foregoing Picasso quote is legit, I feel reassured that the master cubist would not have minded the liberties I’ve taken in building the cartoony image above, which is my riff on one of his paintings and which was my reponse to an invitation to create promotional art for this year’s edition of North Adams Open Studios.

Anyway, I think you’ll see why the painting above struck me as the perfect springboard for a cartoon by yours truly that would be promoting a 21st Century celebration of North Adams artists. For one thing, it depicts an artist in the act of creation. How appropriate is that for advertising a citywide art show? Also, the sheer prescience manifested by the Spanish genius (who died 34 years ago) in showing an artist who’s watching a giant flat-screen TV while drawing even though such electronic wonders had not yet been invented when he created the painting fairly takes my breath away! (Admittedly, whatever show is airing must be less than riveting, since it seems to be making the artist’s companion doze off.)

But to leave speculations about Picasso’s technological clairvoyance aside, you can probably tell that I’ve incorporated into my own cubist-lite ‘toonery a patchwork of snippets from the works of several of the dozens of local artists who’ll be taking part in Open Studios this fall (October 13 and 14, to be specific). If you want to see work by the artists whose art I snipped in more dignified contexts, check out the links to their portfolios and web pages below.

North Adams artists included within my drawing, all of whom will be showing their stuff during the North Adams Open Studios weekend, are: Borkowski; Ed Carson; Sharon Carson; me; Martha Flood; FocoLoco; Karen Kane; Joan Kiley; Cynthia Lewis, Melissa McGorty; Danny O, Debi Pendell, J. Richards, Jr.; River Hill Pottery; Susan Rose; Robert Schechter; Norm Thomas; and Thor Wickstrom. Five galleries (MCLA Gallery 51; Brill Gallery; Eclipse Mill Gallery; Kolok Gallery; Northern Berkshire Creative Arts) will be hosting group shows in addition to the downtown spaces being converted into temporary venues for the weekend.

What could it be but the 2007 Downtown Celebration, which for one evening banished the customary quietude of North Adams evenings, filling Main and Eagle Streets with strolling families, exuberant teens, and other Bershirites in a mood to get mellow under moonlight.

(In the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge that the crowd scene in the snapshot above is from last year’s Downtown Celebration, not last night’s. I was too busy shmoozing with passers-by last night to run around Main Street taking pictures.)

Meanwhile, on another topic…

Several Bay Area blog-readers noticed the passing reference in my most recent post to an "upcoming art exhibition in San Francisco" and wanted to know if a Cruse personal appearance in their city was imminent.

The answer to that question is: no. Unfortunately. While I’m pleased as punch to know that my artwork will be spending some time on a San Franciscan gallery wall, there’s no leeway in the show’s budget to fly me in for the ocasion.

I will, however, tell you what I was referring to in case some of you who live within reach of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at 1111 8th Street want to drop in to see my crosshatching in person.

From September 6-22 the Mary Augustine Gallery, a small vitrine within the Wattis facility, will be occupied by Alabama: A Portrait in Black and White, the opening installment of a projected fifty-show series of exhibits sharing the umbrella title Americana, in which each of our union’s fifty states will have a turn being artistically represented in one way or another.

Jessica Brier, curator of the Alabama show, feels that pages of original art from my graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby will pair well thematically with some of the powerful linoleum cut prints that comprise a recently unearthed limited-edition book called Scottsboro Alabama.

At right: One of the Khan/Perez inages in Scottsboro Alabama

But things are calming down a little now, so I guess I’ll haul myself back into the ol’ bloggers’ saddle and see if I still know how to stay right-side-up.

Evelyn Update: Upon sober reflection and with a wary eye cast on New England’s reputation for winters that show no mercy to 94-year-olds, Eddie’s mom reversed course last week and decided to return to her familiar stomping grounds in Florida instead of staying permanently up here in the Berkshires as she had been tempted to do.

The interview was conducted by Transcript Arts Editor (and fellow blogger) John E. Mitchell, whose checkered career history includes not only journalistic endeavors but the creation (in collaboration with his wife, illustrator Jana Christy) of the Very Vicky comics series, which was first published in the early 1990s by Caliber Press and is still viewable online at the Very Vicky’s Most Pleasing Cartoon Collection web site.

It’s always fun when a newspaper writer decides to give your every word his undivided attention for a couple of hours in anticipation of writing about you. It’s triple the fun when that writer has spent time enduring the slings and arrows (and partaking in the pleasures) of comics-creation himself!

Still to come when I finish catching my breath: Riveting accounts of my latest promotional-graphics gigs, my contemplated foray into self-publishing, my upcoming art exhibition in San Francisco, and Eddie’s battles with fearsome bugs.

This being the laid-back Berkshires, no punches were thrown as the iced tea flowed, scones were scarfed, and our intrepid photographer Ed Sedarbaum snapped away. The scones were generously provided by Sarah McNair, the iced tea by Cup and Saucer.