‘Is it art?’ cartoon
‘Is it art?’ cartoon
A cartoon about the debate concerning what constitutes or defines art.
The cartoon uses an image that is generally accepted to definitely be art as a way of questioning the question itself.
First version drawn: 2006
Cartoon reference number: a727
Physical activity v. mental activity
Well-read mind cartoon
A cartoon from a series featuring a life coach and lifestyle advisor called Mrs Walton.
In the cartoon she is cautioning someone that “A well-read mind is a sign of a lazy body.”
The cartoon is partly about the cultural divide between physical and mental activity, and the various attitudes of superiority that are generated by both.
Drawn: 2012
Cartoon reference number: a904
Crossing bridges cartoon
Crossing bridges cartoon
A cartoon from a series of ‘wellness’ cartoons featuring a life coach and spiritual advisor called Mrs Walton.
In this cartoon she is advising someone that “Just because there is a bridge it doesn’t mean that you have to cross it.”.
The cartoon is about the way that people’s lives and attitudes are channeled in particular directions by the structures imposed by their societies.
A cartoon about life coaches and lifestyle advice.
Drawn: 2012
Cartoon reference number: a903
Confirmation bias cartoon
Confirmation bias cartoon
A cartoon from a series featuring a life coach and lifestyle advisor called Mrs Walton.
In the cartoon she. is advising someone to “Never believe anyone who you agree with.”
The cartoon is about the fact that people tend to seek out opinions that agree with their own, thus reinforcing rather than questioning their own opinions, a phenomenon called confirmation bias.
Drawn: 2012
Cartoon reference number: a902
Shame on you – woke shaming cartoon
Woke shaming cartoon
A cartoon about the tendency among some of the woke to attempt to humiliate and belittle those who think differently to them by ‘shaming’ them. The process of shaming is a convenient way to dismiss other points of view without engaging with it, and of dismissing the person whose view it is.
A cartoon about wokeness, tolerance, intolerence, shaming, shame culture. Published in the Critic magazine, June 2021.
Drawn: October 2020
Cartoon reference number: a900
Philosophy cartoon – the big question
Philosophy cartoon – the big question
An illustration showing someone contemplating the ‘big question’ (in the form of a question mark). Notice that the big question mark is too big to fit the image, symbolic of the fact that the biggest questions are too big to comprehend.
Drawn: 2020
Cartoon reference number: a887
Who is right and who is wrong?
Who is right and who is wrong? Cartoon.
The term “right-thinking people” is used by people who think that they are right, or more accurately, that other people are wrong.
A cartoon about the delusion of moral certainly and political certainty.
Drawn: September 2020
Cartoon reference number: a853
You can be whoever you want to be – cartoon
A flaw in the aspirational concept of “You can be whoever you want to be”.
The cartoon illustrates a problem with the currently popular encouragement to schoolchildren that when they grow up they can be whoever they want to be.
The aspirational, motivational expression makes the assumption that everyone will strive for a worthy goal. I don’t think this is necessarily the case.
In fact the concept gives people license to aim towards whatever they desire, which wouldn’t be a good thing.
Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a835
Conspiracy theory cartoon
Conspiracy theory cartoon.
The cartoon shows a person holding a placard stating “Truth lies in following the evidence”.
Another person holds the same placard with the lower part ripped off, so that the part that he holds reads “Truth lies”.
In recent years (the early 2020s) the concept of finding “your own truth” has become fashionable.
A cartoon about conspiracy theories truth, facts, fake news.
Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a831
The blame game – cartoon
The blame game – cartoon.
A cartoon showing a protester with a banner proclaiming “I blame you”.
The cartoon is about people who need to place the blame for things on other people rather than on circumstances. This includes blaming people for their attitudes rather than analysing the circumstances that make people hold those attitudes.
A cartoon about protestors, political demonstrations, guilt.
Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a830b
Conspiracy theory cartoon
Conspiracy theory cartoon – sign of the times.
A road sign with multiple roads leading to conspiracy theories.
One road leads to truth, but the road is closed.
The cartoon is about the current proliferation of (and acceptance of) conspiracy theories, as we now seem to live in a post-truth fake news world.
The climate of conspiracy theories is a sign of the times, hence the sign and the title of the cartoon, Sign of the Times.
Cartoon drawn: 30th July 2020
Cartoon reference number: a826
Conspiracy theory cartoon
Conspiracy theory cartoon.
A conspiracy theory cartoon featuring a signpost that (may have been) turned round.
Drawn: 9th July 2020
Cartoon reference: a816
Cancel culture cartoon
A cartoon about cancel culture and historical thought crimes.
This cartoon is about the current (2020) phenomenon of cancel culture. This is the concept by which a person is ostracized or shunned if they are judged to hold unapproved views or have attitudes that run counter to those of the arbiters of what are acceptable views. It is a subsection of woke culture.
Cancel culture is responsible for such phenomena as no platforming, where people with proscribed views are denied the ability to put their views forward for debate, particularly in universities.
It is often applied to people based on attitudes that they held in the past. By this criterium practically everyone on the planet should be cancelled, which is one of the points of this cartoon. The saying “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” comes to mind.
Cancel culture is often applied to historical figures from several centuries ago, particularly (at the moment) to those involved in some way in the transatlantic slave trade, and is manifested in the current campaigns to remove statues.
Cancel culture can be viewed as having a stifling effect on culture and debate, with its, to me, zealously censorious woke attitudes and its Orwellian implications.
Drawn: 7th July 2020
Cartoon reference: a815
The fallacy of progress cartoon
Environment cartoon about transport systems
Philosophy cartoon about the fallacy of progress
A cartoon about progress, in which the progress (represented here by road transport) creates its own problems.
Is progress a good thing?
Cars at a standstill, gridlocked in a traffic jam symbolising progress (or the lack of it) in transport planning and the excessive use of cars as personal transport.
Also a cartoon about the philosophical question of whether progress is necessarily automatically a good thing (Some aspects of progress obviously are, but not all of them).
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Created: 2015.
Original version (with older vehicles) created: 1991
Cartoon reference number: env050b
Finding meaning in art – cartoon
The search for meaning – cartoon.
This cartoon is superficially about finding meaning in art, but it is in fact about deeper issues of the search for meaning in life in general.
People are psychologically geared to seek meaning, purpose and agency in things, including phenomena that may lack all of these qualities. Some aspects of religion are obvious manifestations of this.
The artist in the cartoon is saying ‘My work is about the way that the human mind seeks meaning in the meaningless’.
Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art112
See my book of art cartoons here.
Cartoon – so many paintings to do before I die
Time is the enemy of the artist (and of everyone else too).
An elderly artist working frantically to get all of his ideas down on canvas before he dies.
A cartoon about art and mortality, death and the restlessness of the creative mind.
Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art089
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
Profound art and banal art – cartoon
Profound art and banal art – cartoon
Cartoon showing a painting of a vase of flowers (banal art) and a painting of a vase of dead flowers (profound art).
The painting of the dead flowers is judged as being profound because it alludes to death.
Original cartoon drawn: 2010
This version drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art012
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
Art as a bid for immortality
A cartoon about creating art as a bid for immortality
The cartoon shows an artist working on a painting.
He is saying “While I’m alive I like to think of my work living on when I’m dead, but when I’m dead I probably won’t care one way or the other.”
The cartoon is about the way that people are often motivated in their lives to do things due to the awareness of their own mortality, and the paradox that once they have died they won’t care.
It is interesting to speculate on how much of human activity is motivated by this urge, and what position the human race would be in if we didn’t have the urge.
Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art014
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
Describing visual art in words
Cartoon about the problem of trying to describe visual art in words.
A cartoon about the way that words obscure as much as enlighten.
Original version drawn: 2007
This version drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art006
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
Art gallery exhibit – cartoon – what is your greatest wish?
Cartoon about art that asks people questions.
A cartoon about audience participation art installations.
The cartoon is set inside an art gallery, showing an installation in which the participant has to write down their greatest wish.
A cartoon about art predicting the future of society and the world and about the fulfilment of people’s desires and wishes.
Drawn: 2019