Letter from the Publisher
Far From Funnies
If a cartoon is defined as a simple line drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorous and exaggerated way, Charles Schulz did it best, demonstrating one thought in the guise of another. It seems we all can relate to one of the Peanuts characters. For me, it was Charlie Brown: the hapless, lovable loser with anxieties along with endless determination and hope. Other timeless plots still resonate today, like Lucy’s five-cent psychoanalysis stand.
The entire Peanuts franchise is purely endearing, good-natured and unpretentious. My favorite is A Charlie Brown Christmas and the supporting songbook. It puts me in the holiday spirit every time. The themes throughout Peanuts seem to be written for an adult mind, and the plots still call upon the same uncertainties and insecurities that connect the viewers of today to the viewers of the 1960s and 1970s.
Special thanks to art dealer Dewey Graff. He sent me a recent Today Show clip about Tom Everhart’s Peanuts art (go to artfullivingmagazine.com to watch). It provided Artful Living with a unique angle for covering America’s greatest cartoonist. Alyssa Ford has written an exceptional feature presenting Everhart’s case that Schulz adopted ideas and took his lead from some of the greatest artists in the world in making Peanuts a masterpiece. To round out our feature, Ivy Gracie makes the subject even more relevant to our readers with 11 things you didn’t know about Schulz and the interesting backstory about wall-size Peanuts images drawn by the cartoonist in the 1950s in his last Minneapolis home.
Artful Living is proud to be the media partner for the brand-new Artisan Home Tour by Parade Of Homes. The tour will kick off in June with exquisitely crafted homes by the region’s most exceptional custom homebuilders. Be sure to check out the very best properties available from Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty.
Get hungry for another food and wine issue of Artful Living. Charles Schulz put it best: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
Cheers,
Frank Roffers
Publisher + Editor-In-Chief
