| "Marketing Made Easy: 1. Spot a domestic looking woman in the supermarket and copy her grocery cart." |
Some of you (hi, Mom and Dad) may recognize this illus. as being from Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, a book highly instrumental in shaping my own housewifely habits. (No, really.) Funny as the text is, and even helpful sometimes--"Wear glasses when you're taking something out of the oven. They will steam up and you'll have a few minutes to brace yourself."--the illustrations make the book what it is. Perl, who died in 1983 at 60 of cancer, was fresh and bold in her work, never making preliminary sketches because that destroyed her pictures' spontaneity. She was very popular, her work in high demand for childrens' books particularly. She drew winsome, homely children.
And hilarious teenagers.
| Drawings of The Twist. |
I wouldn't mind my house looking like Phyllis Diller's (and it has) if my drawings looked like Susan Perl's. Study and practice! I have not illustrated anything much for ages, and probably won't any time soon. But it's nice to have role models in reserve. Meantime, my little flat isn't in terrible shape. A small space, few residents and no pets make housework feel like playing house.
Next month we will toss everything in the hatch of the car or the bed of the pickup and roll it down the sidewalk to our new three-bedroom digs. Will I take this chance to weed out excess stuff we haven't touched in nine months, or shove it untouched into nether corners of our new cupboards?
What would Phyllis do?
