Art plus capitalism plus the block party

Like anybody who loves local music and drinking all day in the sun, I attended the Free Press’ Westheimer Block Party on Saturday, March 28. I decided to set up a card table and start up my dormant personalized art service, "Joe Mathlete Will Draw Anything You Want On An Index Card," [1] over by JD Tucker’s Secret Saturday Stage. I didn’t end up downing more than half a warm beer but I drew a lot of cards, heard some great bands, met some friendly people and made a nice little profit (though my overhead, five bucks for a couple markers and a pack of index cards, isn’t too tough to clear).

Back when the index card thing was a growing concern I’d get requests via email and take anywhere from a few days to several months to actually crank the things out, but here I only had a few minutes and the general idea that the less shitty my drawings were the more people might fork over (I made up a little sign that said “SUGGESTED DONATION: some money” and people were actually quite generous, though the fact that I made more during the end of the day might indicate that Lone Star had more to do with that than quality).

I had a few cards left over at the end of the day:

Superman giving Spiderman a baloney sandwich: Requested by Chris Wise from Buxton, whom I put on the spot and asked to give me a sample so I'd have something on my table to give an example of what the hell I was doing out there. This was the first thing that popped into his head and it's maybe my favorite of the whole day.

Poopy Lungstuffing riding her bike: Requested by Poopy Lungstuffing herself (Olivia to her friends). One of the proprietors of the amazing (and recently reopened) warehouse district music venue/art space Super Happy Fun Land by day, ukulele shredder/sock monkey craftswoman/human doll by night, all around rad human being.

Abe Lincoln, had he defeated John Wilkes Booth with a knife: Requested by Wild Moccasins frontman Cody Swann. I can't draw people all that well, but aliens are no problem. I am also pretty okay at quoting Independence Day.

Jesus vs. Godzilla: I forget who requested this, but they forgot to pay me for it so I guess we're even.