A self-indulgent, non-caricature post...

Usually, I try to keep my blog relevant to my professional life. This past weekend, I shirked my caricature career for  "me" time...my significant other JB and I went up to NYC to see my favorite pianist/composer/lyricist/comedian/critical thinker/rock star wannabe, Tim Minchin, in concert. (This was my third time, click if you'd like to read about the first and second--where I was able to connect it to caricature somehow ;-)
This time, after a wonderful day spent eating and subwaying around Manhattan (with one unintentional detour because we accidentally got on an express instead of a local) we strolled to Times Square from our hotel, expecting to be awed by the colossal technological displays to be found there. Instead, we bumped into Tim Minchin himself! He wasn't being mobbed, he was just standing in Times Square chatting to a few people, and was happy to see us. He took this wonderful photo with my phone and it just made my night... and we still had his concert to look forward to!

JB later remarked, if we hadn't messed up on that one subway ride, we wouldn't have gotten there right when Tim was standing in the street, as he left about ten minutes after our arrival to go get ready to perform. 

 I guess I could say my caricatures made this all possible. I do love my job!

Tim Minchin...eyeliner, hair, and talent

In January this year, I did a Conan O'Brien caricature (see above in my blog header!) to submit to the art gallery on Conan's site. Some of them were being shown on the air, so I tried to watch the show every night (for awhile, anyway) on the off chance they'd use mine. ( I don't know if they ever did.)
One night, Conan's musical guest was a new-to-American-television Australian pianist/comedian named Tim Minchin. He sang a very clever, ribald song about an inflatable doll, that ended with a Beatle homage...and I was completely hooked! A true artist with both songwriting (ranging from the utterly ridiculous to gasp-worthy to sweet, deep and sublime) and mad grand piano skills, I checked out all his Youtube videos and thought, if he ever tours, I'm going!
Well, guess where I was this past Saturday night? Handing him this digital painting after his concert in Washington, DC!

The words are from one of his sillier (he said so!) songs...if you check him out, be forewarned that his stuff is for adults who don't get offended easily (strong language and subjects).
The other half and I had wonderful seats:

Tim has a policy of meeting his fans after his shows, and he came out and charmed everyone (we were already charmed ;-)

Well, if I can't meet John Lennon or Freddie Mercury.... I'll settle for Tim! ;-)

He chatted with my other half too, and signed his ticket. I had actually printed two of my paintings, one for Tim to keep, and one to sign for me, and he did.

Then I had the audacity to give him my business card! :-O

It was worth turning down a few gigs to have this much fun!

Thanks to Danielle for the above video, and Conan for having Tim on his show in the first place. :-)