All for Love

Love, marriage, divorce, sex, and parenting have been ongoing themes in Liza Donnelly’s art, perhaps with good reason. She has been married to veteran New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin for more than thirty years, and their cartoons reveal the humor and pathos in relationships from both a male and female perspective. The challenges of co-habitation, communication, and child-rearing invite Donnelly’s hilarious perspectives on the way that relationships work, or sometimes fall down on the job. Cartoon Marriage, a 2009 book that Donnelly and Maslin collaborated on, is a comedic inside look at the life’s small moments and the complications inherent in loving relationships. “We weren’t sure if it would damage our marriage,” she said, “but it probably brought us closer together because we had a lot of cartoons about marriage to start with.”

Womanpower

When Liza Donnelly was in college, the second wave of feminism was in full swing, and though she championed equal rights for women from the start, “I didn’t think I was a feminist cartoonist—I just wanted to be a cartoonist.” But while working at The New Yorker, she realized that there were very few women drawing cartoons, and that female artists could offer unique and meaningful perspectives. Tina Brown, editor of The New Yorker from 1992 to 1998, especially appreciated Donnelly’s work and published “a lot of it.” This helped to foster Donnelly’s humorous voice as a woman and inspired her to view cartooning as a means of bringing sexism and other feminist concerns to light. The subject of equality and women’s rights at work, at home, in society, and around the globe remains a significant theme in her work today. Her books Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Cartoonists and Their Cartoons (2005) and Sex and Sensibility (2008) highlight the contributions of noted and lesser-known female visual humorists.

Political Observer

As she grew as an artist and visual commentator, Liza Donnelly shifted her focus to matters of national and global importance. Right after 9/11, she “spoke out more” and dedicated herself to circulating cartoons focused on the political landscape for the pages of The New Yorker and other outlets, both print and digital. “There were things in the news that inspired me, such as Hillary Clinton’s 2008 run for president,” she said. Though she has a particular political viewpoint, she avoids strident negativity and “tries not to be that loud, because you can get more of a conversation going that way.” Still, Donnelly feels that it is important for political cartoonists to scrutinize elected officials and to hold them accountable, an artistic tradition that is centuries-old.

Cartooning for Peace

Cartooning for Peace was launched after the 2005 Jullands-Posten Muhammad cartoon controversy, which was sparked after twelve editorial cartoons depicting Muhammad, a principal figure of Islam, were published in the Danish newspaper. Islam has a strong tradition of aniconism, the absence of material representations of the natural or spiritual world. Muslim people were deeply offended by the drawings, and their widespread internet distribution led to violent protests around the world. In questioning the editorial cartoonist’s role, French artist Jean Plantu imagined Cartooning for Peace and brought it to the attention of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. On October 16, 2006, Unlearning Intolerance—Drawing Peace, a seminar organized by Plantu and Annan, was held at the UN, and Donnelly was one of twelve international cartoonists invited to participate. A fan of the medium, Annan said, “I have always thought that cartoons are one of the most important elements in the press. They have a special role in forming public opinion—because an image generally has a stronger, more direct impact on the brain than a sentence does, and because many more people will look at a cartoon than read an article.” Today, more than one-hundred-fifty artist are members of Cartooning for Peace. “We use our craft to talk about global issues and how cartoons can be used to inspire dialogue and understanding—how they can be used for good,” said Donnelly, who helps to jury the organization’s global cartooning awards, which are presented every other year.

Surviving COVID-19

Liza Donnelly lives in New York State and has closely observed the impact of COVID-19 on the lives and psyches of the American people. Her cartoons on the subject have been both poignant and funny, tracing the lives of everyday citizens who are trying in their own way to cope with a challenging situation. “This is what cartoonists do, we comment upon what’s going on in life, and so the pandemic is life now,” she observed. “I’ve had to draw a lot of people wearing masks.”

Our Lives and Times

When working on single panel cartoons for The New Yorker and other publications, Liza Donnelly is a theatrical director who acts as the “script writer, casting director, set designer, and choreographer.” Though the narratives that unfold in her art are inspired by real life, artistic license is an essential aspect of making things work. Captions sometimes come first, but more often than not, Donnelly finds that cartoon images and words evolve simultaneously—a craft that is learned over time.  “My cartoons are not laugh-out-loud, necessarily, they are slices of life, observations about what’s going on and the things that people say to each other. Those things can be funny,” Donnelly said. “So it’s a sharing, it’s about experiencing life together and not always about a joke.”

The Art of the Picturebook

In the 1980s as Liza Donnelly was building her career as a cartoonist, “people kept suggesting that I try children’s books, but I couldn’t much focus on it.” She did, however, create a mockup of a book concept inspired by the monsters she drew as a child, but editors at Scholastic asked if she might turn her imaginary creatures into dinosaurs. In 1987, Dinosaur Day launched a series of seven books about a little boy and his dog with a fascination for prehistoric animals and a love of adventure. She found children’s books to be an enjoyable respite from the news and world’s realities, which more directly inspire her cartoons. Bright and colorful, Donnelly’s books have minimal text, with narratives that are propelled forward by the fun-filled experiences of her endearing characters. Dinosaur Halloween, Dinosaur Thanksgiving, Dinosaur Beach, The End of the Rainbow, and A Hippo in Our Yard are among her many books for young readers.

Live Drawing

Liza Donnelly is passionate about live digital drawing, which allows her to capture and share the immediacy of any moment, whether on location or in the comfort of her living room. About five years ago, she received a gift of an iPad and explored its possibilities. “I was watching a State of the Union address on television and began drawing, sending out each sketch on Twitter.” Public response was enthusiastic and positive, “and the drawings were loose, bold, and colorful—impressions of the people in the room and the president himself.” Digital drawing soon became a way for Donnelly to converse with people through social media, and the art form has become an important and enjoyable aspect of her career. CBS and CNN have hired Donnelly as a visual correspondent at the Oscar, Grammy, and Tony awards, and she has also covered the Democratic National Convention and the Women’s March on Washington. Each evening at 5p.m. on Instagram, she draws and narrates her impressions of the events of the day. “It’s so fluid,” she said. “I love the feel of a crowquill pen on paper, but I like the immediacy of digital drawing and love sharing it with people.”

Liza Donnelly: Live Drawing Gallery
Published: July 2020