About the Artist

Yes I like cats. And dogs.

“Life is a joke and that’s the good news.” says comedy instructor Judy Carter. Meaning you have made all kinds of mistakes that are good material for comedy. And Carol Burnett said, “Tragedy plus time equals comedy.” Often it seems the sooner we can learn to laugh off a problem the better off we are. Why do we take ourselves so seriously? No one else does. Have you noticed that a lot of intelligent and observant people are funny? Where as stupid people are usually funny to laugh at, but not with. This is in a way leads to my own insecurity about whether people are laughing with me or at me. Then I get insecure if people don’t laugh at all so I guess any laugh is the lesser of two evils.

          I guess my brain is wired for humor too. I took one of those personality test that said I was a good idea person. Other then that the personality test said I’m pretty useless. I like putting ideas together. I like putting two completely opposite things and make a joke out of it. Like putting chickens on Harley’s and calling it the Chicken Bikers.

     There is something about humor that helps us to learn. When we hear someone speaking that uses humor people are more attentive. I can remember times when my mind was somewhere else while someone was talking and they say something funny and everyone laughs and I feel like a numb scull because I wasn’t paying attention. There is part of us that wants to be able to laugh together with others. People that can laugh together can stay together. It is a bonding experience. I can remember times of bonding with my father while watched TV together and had some laughs together. You could be in the middle of what seems like a world war and if you can laugh you are ahead of the game. If you can learn to take a tragic day and make it into something humorous you can rise above the situation. A comedy instructor named        

     Comedy helps us not to take ourselves so seriously. If we stop taking ourselves so seriously we will have less stress. Less stress means we can be freer to see new ideas and ways of thinking about things.  Comedy also helps us to be more forgiving of others and ourselves. No life is perfect. Often times we laugh when we hear other peoples failures because we have done the same thing ourselves.

    I think my all time hero of comedy is Rodney Dangerfield. When I dropped out of college I was incredibly depressed. I was so depressed I wanted to jump off a bridge. The only problem is I’m afraid of heights. Then I was at the library and I came across an article in People magazine about Rodney. It showed a picture of Rodney with an egg on him and it said, “The yoke is on Rodney.” I started watching Rodney on TV and taping him and memorizing his jokes. I used to tell other people Rodney jokes and developed his attitude of making fun of himself. And a funny thing happened. All the sudden I had more friends. People don’t want to hang around someone who takes themselves too seriously or has an ego to protect and acts perfect. People would rather be around someone who is imperfect and fails like they do. Like when I get introduced at parties people would introduce me and say, “Here’s Frank. He’s a failure.” Just a joke. But when we can make fun of ourselves it helps people.

      Anyway I hope you enjoy this book and that it is the beginning of a new chapter in my and your life. I hope to do more animations and enter into the film festivals and hopefully I’ll have my animations of TV (Aside from being on Public access TV) I also hope to be in more major art contest and get in some museums and do more public speaking. That was one of the reasons for writing a book. So that I could write a monolog for presenting my artwork. It should prove to be an entertaining presentation. I hope to do it in PowerPoint for schools, corporate meetings and different clubs and organizations. I hope to see you out there having a good time.

 Monkey. What can I say about this? The comment I get on this one is something like, “Hey look, it’s grandpa.” Or, “Hey honey, it’s you in the morning.” But I tell people it reminds me of myself. Or this is what my inner child would look like. Every Artist has got to do a self-portrait. This is my morning self-portrait without my coffee. I did this art piece during my dark period. If I have to run to the store to get coffee in the morning, I will do it before I do anything else. Like get dressed. I go in my bathrobe. The worst part is driving to the store because I am afraid I will fall asleep at the wheel. Wearing my bathrobe of course.

I like the look on the monkey’s face of complete agony and frustration. I guess it’s why I like it and identify with it. (I hope you do too) If guess if there is a moral to this story it is, “Life is frustrating. Get used to it. Let go and let God.