We're constantly shocked out of lala land. Did we forget the fear of 9-11? Or being brought down by Hurricane Sandy already?

Last night, I drew at a swanky party on Lexington Avenue. My wild pictures. A hard-working sweating belly-dancer. And then.

Almost all packed up to leave. A man comes up to me, aw gee, he just arrived too late to get a Caricature. And he tells me that he came down from CT. Newtown, CT to be precise. He said that he's in shock because his little 5-year-old neighbor was just buried. She had been in that terrible school incident. He showed me a photo on his phone. Of her with a few of her friends.

We can remember the people who died in this week's terrible incident. And now we can even remember the man who lived nearby. Need we only remember those who die? I like to remember all the people who show up on my path.

Did you ever wonder about what you look like from behind? This might be just a passing wind, but im now offering Butticatures. They're actually kind of cute.

This is what happened. I went to a Clown Alley meeting last night. We were supposed to have a Special Guest Face-Painter. Butt she didn't show up ~ So there we were ~ a bunch of Entertainers out to entertain ourselves. Those of us who were Face-Painters had some Face-Painting supplies because we also planned on jamming.

I set a chair onto the stage, figuring that the person who was running the meeting would organize us into a show. The show happened, but the organization did not. Instead of sitting in our seats to watch the show, everyone gathered around the stage. It was simple stuff to me, so I gave up on jockeying for position to seeeee. And I sat myself back into the audience (where several other people also sat, unable to see the show).

The audience full of Entertainers started entertaining themselves. There was the Face-Painting on the Stage, some Balloon twisting next to that. A man balancing chairs on his nose. One walking around joking with us....

But I see that all week long. That's what I do at work. So I just sat there watching the Face-Painting show. Well, what I could see of it from my seat.

With some old markers. The backs of some used papers.

After a few drawings, I spoke up. "If anybody wants to see what I've been drawing...."

Whoa. Something New. Something that even these professional Entertainers had never seen. They were attracted to my activity like flies to a camp-porch-light. "Draw me." "Will you draw mine?" I drew a few more. With my old markers ~ they're drying up. But it was getting to be more Fun. It's more fun for the Artist to draw when the models stand still for the drawing. And it was much fun for the people I drew to be standing there keenly aware of their rear-ends.

Seeing how the people responded to modeling for this, I realized that it would be much fun for Parties. I didn't have a camera with me, so I asked some of my models to email me the pictures that I gave them.

Oh ~ Look at how lucky I was. I just checked my email, and I found these there already. Two of the Butticatures that I drew at the meeting last night:

Why do I let some people drive me crazy ~ put a straight-jacket on me ~ ~ ~ I know what I'm doing. I handle more Parties each month than some people even Go to in their whole lives ~

Not a professional Photographer, I tried to snap snap snap some pictures real fast to show the sort of reactions that I frequently get when my client gives me carte-blanche to handle the Party Caricatures the way I know how to. This lovely woman was so Happy ~ This is her reaction to her own Caricature. And she watched me draw several others repeating over and over "You're awesome" to me. Caricatures. Exaggeration. Party Fun. The guests were Enjoying the Party activity:

If you want Caricatures, get Caricatures ~ They are meant for Parties. If you want Portraits, get the real thing ~ something that even took Rembrandt months to create. Don't ask for 2nd-rate Portraits to be drawn in Party-time.