Yesterday someone posted on r/Hawaii about a caricature artist working on the strip in Waikiki. He'd done three people, three faces stacked on top of each other, and he'd had a great time stretching them all out of proportion, making the eyes funny shapes, and so on. All great fun and more power to the guy, but in a way it kinda stings and writing about this might make that go away because I've moved on, as it were.
First, years ago, after the economy had crashed in 2007-2008 and I'd realized I had to have some "street skill" and fast, I'd decided that maybe doing caricature drawings would save me. I'd been expected as a child to "become an artist" and while no more talented than the average kid, I'd been at least exposed to a lot of art and art materials.
The end-all of this had been a number of really mediocre caricature drawings scattered along my path, and my finding that pretty much no one cares about them out here in coastal California.
If I were still that interested, I'd have set out with a sketch pad and materials and a sign or two and "busked" caricatures for free here and there. Since the key to becoming a competent caricaturist is to draw tons and tons of faces, the key would be to get out there and "busk"; do as many as possible with the reward being the experience of drawing them, any money reward being incidental.
I've tried to get myself interested and even bought materials at times, was going to make clever little signs out of artists' palettes, a little stand-up sign that looks like a smartphone saying "I can draw from pictures on your phone!" and so on. I just cannot get that interested.
There are actually several caricature artists around the Bay Area, trying to scratch out a living. It's hard enough for them, who presumably don't have any other skills. The guys who used to come up here for Christmas In The Park gave up a year or two before covid - it was already that bad for them. It's not a profession for anyone who doesn't love it heart and soul.
I look at what caricature artists need to have, also, and I'm relieved not to be in that game. At a minimum they need signage, examples, tons of art materials, a chair for them and one for their subject, just the right lighting which means, often, some LED lighting, and it'd better not be windy or rainy. That's the minimum. Most end up with stands showing their drawings of celebrities, big signs, maybe frames or clear plastic sleeves for the completed drawings, and a van to put it all in.
But seeing this guy in Waikiki able to goof on people still stings a bit because he's vaguely Asian/Pacific Islander and thus can do anything. If I were set up there, not white enough for the mainland but considered white in Hawaii, and drew people that way, it might be a week before I'm fired or stabbed. People can peddle all kinds of things in Waikiki as long as they're not white/white-passing or, I presume, black as Hawaii is not kind to "popolos" either. Begging is OK, and music is OK because nothing physical is exchanged. And even then, it took a lawsuit by one "Sonny Beethoven", who being both Asian and a Punahou graduate, was able to successfully sue for the right to play music on the strip in Waikiki.
(I could possibly, if I were under the protection of an Asian concession owner, get away with doing photo-perfect portraits that magically made the old young, the chubby less so, birthmarks nonexistent, and so on. If I did it more cheaply than any Asian person of similar skill.)
I am really glad, though, that what I am interested in is playing music, so nothing physical changes hands, and interested in instruments where anything beyond the instrument is not required. No foolishness with batteries and amplifiers or even strings.
And of course once I'm back there, I can always have a try at doing Ebay on my own again. I'd sure rather not because I hate Ebay, but I'll be out from under the non-compete I'm under with Ken and will have that option again. Ebay doesn't pay attention to the racial caste system in Hawaii.
I think the whole thing may have helped me dodge a bullet though. For instance, I could not work in the pineapple fields, which was well-paid work, but by all accounts it was grueling work. I could not work in the sugar mill or sugar industry, but again, it was very hard work for the money. I could not work in fast food because that work was above my station - but who really wants to work in fast food? I was forced to look at those things I *could* do, and studying electronics as a way out of there and presumably to a well-paying electronics job on the mainland was a good way to avoid my predetermined path to a lifetime of the lowest, most dangerous or demeaning jobs. For instance, I *could* get a job working at the wastewater plant - that place STUNK. And I was able to get a job as a security guard, although I'd likely have been kept at the lowest rank for decades, because as it turns out guards get beat up and stabbed a lot. Occasionally killed. A "haole" security guard was just killed in downtown Honolulu a week or so ago and no one will break much of a sweat looking for his killer. It only made the news because the guy was very friendly.
Music and entertainment seem to be the one place where the rules can be bent if not broken. We all grew up watching Checkers & Pogo, both white guys. In fact come to think of it, a couple of the minor characters, Professor Fun and another one or two, where white also. It's as weird as all-white neighborhoods on the mainland all having their TV sets tuned to the Amos 'n' Andy show. Jim Nabors was adored in Hawaii. Jack Lord, a B-level actor, also. So, other than being rich, being in music or entertainment is the way to go back home.
This is the kind of situation Jews found themselves in, by the way. There's all this resentment, Oh, Jews are too smart to shovel shit, etc. Well Jews were not allowed to shovel shit, so they had to find clever ways to exist.
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