When I was a child, every Sunday meant there was a brand new search and find for me to do. I would ask my Mom for the New York Times Arts & Leisure section of the paper. Almost every week there was an ink drawing by an artist name Al Hirschfeld. He was famous for his portraits of folks performing on Broadway. You knew you had made it when he had drawn you.
My love of him began when my mom showed me that he liked to hide his daughters name in his drawings. I would look for his signature in the lower right corner and find a number just after it. This told me how many times he had hidden "Nina" in the drawing. Sometimes it was just a couple of times. Other times, in the more complicated drawings, there would over 20 Nina's. Those were the best! It was hard because I wouldn't mark on the drawing (I didn't want to ruin it), so I would have to remember which ones I had found and not count them twice. To this day, he is still one of my favorite artists. He passed away in 2003, so there isn't new work, but he produced so much work over an 75 year career that there is lots to enjoy!
These two pieces are good examples of his work. Charlie Chaplan from Modern Times reminds me of going to the silent movies with my Dad. And the Elvis Presley drawing is an example of his pieces with color, albeit just a little color in this piece.
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