For the last 14 years, fine artist and cartoonist David Kish has been drawing his prolific weekly comic, Hoopleville. I met Kish at the Tucson Weekly booth during the Tucson Comic-Con last November. I had never come across him, but had an approximation of who he was based on what I have read in the newspaper.


I recognized he was sharp and witty, but I didn't know how generous and caring he was. When Kish isn't working on art or creating comics, he donates his time and energy to work with children at the Boys and Girls Club. On Earth Day, Kish came to the Weekly headquarters in Airport Heights, and gave everyone a piece of artistry that was cleverly constructed out of cardboard. He had never met anyone in the office except for Dan Gibson and I, but almost every employee received an original piece of art.


Good news if you're a fan of Kish's work or appreciate fine art you can't anywhere else in the world. You can catch Kish's art exhibit "Cardboard Manifesto" until Thursday, July 31, at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N Stone Ave. Click here for more information.

Artist's Statement from the Library:

What do normal people do when they turn 45? Do they dig in dumpsters for cardboard, then cut and color and glue the booty into wall sculpture of cartoonish blimps and squid and fruit and saints and people with wheels instead of feet? Because, I do.
For twenty years, I had been so deeply involved in the "serious" art world - working for galleries, museums and schools - that I began to loose touch with what is REAL about the creative act. This series brought me back to my roots: the kid (and then the teenager (and then the young adult)) who just couldn't stop making stuff…weird stuff!

Cutting, ripping, bending, painting and gluing with the fury of a jazz drummer. A quick sketch, but improvising as I go. Drawing with a box cutter. Cardboard flying everywhere, my studio looking like a tornado rampaged the Ikea warehouse. Creating freely with no fear of failure, no pretension, no pressure, just the REALITY of two hands, two eyes and a brain working together.

This wall sculpture series is made from found cardboard, and is based on the graphic of my cartoon world, Hoopleville, which is in its tenth year of newspaper publication, and which runs locally in the Tucson Weekly. Please visit www.hoopleville.com for more cartoons, and www.cardboardmanifesto.com for more recycled cardboard art.

Warning: this work WILL make you smile!