(no subject)
A really great newspaper article about one of the residents where I work.
I never knew he was an artist until I saw the article just the other day.
Artist draws laughter with topical cartoons
Man's art imitates life at the Legacy at Willow Pond
Diana Louise Carter
Staff writer
(January 3, 2007) - PENFIELD - Sam Nichols' mother probably didn't know what she was starting when she handed him pencil and paper to keep him quiet during church some 85 years ago.
That was how, in Williamsport, Pa., a long lifetime of drawing and cartooning began for Nichols.
Now 92, Nichols still draws daily. He has a drafting table instead of a kitchen table in his compact apartment at the Legacy at Willow Pond, the senior assisted-living center in Penfield where he has lived for the last four years. It's there at the table, or on the pad he keeps by his bedside, that Nichols still draws one or two cartoons a day, capturing wry moments of life.
Many of them are published in the daily activities bulletin at Willow Pond.
"I can see something and I can make something funny out of it," Nichols said recently. "I don't know - unless it's from the Lord - I don't know where I get these big ideas," he said.
The frequency of rice on the menu at Willow Pond, the timeworn advice of doctors to slim down and exercise more, and topical subjects such as the price of gas make their way into his cartoons.
"It puts smiles on our faces because it's about what we know," said Ann Marie Hurley, director of Willow Pond.
Some of the topics are clearly from another generation, since the men wear fedoras and women wear hats, too.
"There's things from the '40s that everyone there gets," said Pam Nichols of Rochester, his daughter.
Sam Nichols, who worked as a professional cartoonist in the 1930s, says there's no shortage of material in his surroundings.
"People are so funny when you get to be our age," he said. The foibles of life in a senior community are reflected in the cartoon about the short woman who has to climb the ladder to get her mail from the top row of mailboxes, or the grandfatherly man whose bingo game is spiced up with show dancers.
"There are times when it really hits the spot," Hurley said, recalling the example of the cartoon about the residents lining up for every meal well before the dining room opens.
But there have been a few times when he hit the mark a little too closely. She said she's passed on a couple of cartoons because they too closely resembled particular residents.
Nichols said he doesn't mean to do that, but "they all look alike." He seems to favor an "everyman" look with big eyes, bald pate, prominent nose and sometimes a mustache. Add a little more hair on top, and, well, you might have Nichols himself.
Local news creeps into the comics, too, such as the cost of sniffing the flowers at the Lilac Festival, or how much a certain artistic elephant gets paid for her creations, compared to his.
Nichols' daughter said her father's creativity has flowed freely since he moved to Penfield. The help he received in caring for his wife, Helen Nichols, who died in 2005, allowed him time to return to his lifelong love of drawing.
"It's holding him together," Pam Nichols said.
Sam Nichols worked for the Philadelphia Public Ledger during the Great Depression, first in the advertising department as an illustrator. When a syndicated cartoonist fell ill, Nichols won a contest to see who could imitate the other man's style most closely.
But after serving in the war and marrying his bride of 62 years, Nichols found that he couldn't support a family on a cartoonist's salary, so he worked in the grocery and car sales businesses for many years. He retired in the 1970s and moved to Annapolis, where his late son lived.
Nichols' daughter said he decorated an Annapolis restaurant with caricatures of local luminaries. While there, he also fostered a love of sailing as crew on a friend's boat. Perhaps not coincidentally, he illustrated three books on boats. Paintings from those illustrations decorate his Legacy apartment.
"I like to make everybody laugh," Nichols said. Even so, though, he's thinking about giving up cartooning for a while. "I want to do more watercolors."
Whatever the format, you can be sure Nichols will keep on creating.
Sam Nichols, 92, began drawing as a child and once made his living as an illustrator and cartoonist. Now he entertains fellow residents at the Legacy at Willow Pond in Penfield with cartoons that often reflect daily life.
Sam Nichols’ cartoons can be seen on his drafting table. He also draws on a pad that he keeps by his bedside in his Penfield apartment.
This is the kind of art that I love.
The art that is not part of the so-called "art world."
I never knew he was an artist until I saw the article just the other day.
Artist draws laughter with topical cartoons
Man's art imitates life at the Legacy at Willow Pond
Diana Louise Carter
Staff writer
(January 3, 2007) - PENFIELD - Sam Nichols' mother probably didn't know what she was starting when she handed him pencil and paper to keep him quiet during church some 85 years ago.
That was how, in Williamsport, Pa., a long lifetime of drawing and cartooning began for Nichols.
Now 92, Nichols still draws daily. He has a drafting table instead of a kitchen table in his compact apartment at the Legacy at Willow Pond, the senior assisted-living center in Penfield where he has lived for the last four years. It's there at the table, or on the pad he keeps by his bedside, that Nichols still draws one or two cartoons a day, capturing wry moments of life.
Many of them are published in the daily activities bulletin at Willow Pond.
"I can see something and I can make something funny out of it," Nichols said recently. "I don't know - unless it's from the Lord - I don't know where I get these big ideas," he said.
The frequency of rice on the menu at Willow Pond, the timeworn advice of doctors to slim down and exercise more, and topical subjects such as the price of gas make their way into his cartoons.
"It puts smiles on our faces because it's about what we know," said Ann Marie Hurley, director of Willow Pond.
Some of the topics are clearly from another generation, since the men wear fedoras and women wear hats, too.
"There's things from the '40s that everyone there gets," said Pam Nichols of Rochester, his daughter.
Sam Nichols, who worked as a professional cartoonist in the 1930s, says there's no shortage of material in his surroundings.
"People are so funny when you get to be our age," he said. The foibles of life in a senior community are reflected in the cartoon about the short woman who has to climb the ladder to get her mail from the top row of mailboxes, or the grandfatherly man whose bingo game is spiced up with show dancers.
"There are times when it really hits the spot," Hurley said, recalling the example of the cartoon about the residents lining up for every meal well before the dining room opens.
But there have been a few times when he hit the mark a little too closely. She said she's passed on a couple of cartoons because they too closely resembled particular residents.
Nichols said he doesn't mean to do that, but "they all look alike." He seems to favor an "everyman" look with big eyes, bald pate, prominent nose and sometimes a mustache. Add a little more hair on top, and, well, you might have Nichols himself.
Local news creeps into the comics, too, such as the cost of sniffing the flowers at the Lilac Festival, or how much a certain artistic elephant gets paid for her creations, compared to his.
Nichols' daughter said her father's creativity has flowed freely since he moved to Penfield. The help he received in caring for his wife, Helen Nichols, who died in 2005, allowed him time to return to his lifelong love of drawing.
"It's holding him together," Pam Nichols said.
Sam Nichols worked for the Philadelphia Public Ledger during the Great Depression, first in the advertising department as an illustrator. When a syndicated cartoonist fell ill, Nichols won a contest to see who could imitate the other man's style most closely.
But after serving in the war and marrying his bride of 62 years, Nichols found that he couldn't support a family on a cartoonist's salary, so he worked in the grocery and car sales businesses for many years. He retired in the 1970s and moved to Annapolis, where his late son lived.
Nichols' daughter said he decorated an Annapolis restaurant with caricatures of local luminaries. While there, he also fostered a love of sailing as crew on a friend's boat. Perhaps not coincidentally, he illustrated three books on boats. Paintings from those illustrations decorate his Legacy apartment.
"I like to make everybody laugh," Nichols said. Even so, though, he's thinking about giving up cartooning for a while. "I want to do more watercolors."
Whatever the format, you can be sure Nichols will keep on creating.
Sam Nichols, 92, began drawing as a child and once made his living as an illustrator and cartoonist. Now he entertains fellow residents at the Legacy at Willow Pond in Penfield with cartoons that often reflect daily life.
Sam Nichols’ cartoons can be seen on his drafting table. He also draws on a pad that he keeps by his bedside in his Penfield apartment.
This is the kind of art that I love.
The art that is not part of the so-called "art world."