Whom You Know: MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Drew Dernavich, Cartoonist for the New Yorker!!!

Monday, February 23, 2009

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Drew Dernavich, Cartoonist for the New Yorker!!!

Drew Dernavich was born in Massachusetts, and began drawing things immediately thereafter. He completed his formal education with a Fine Arts degree from The College of William and Mary, where he angered his art professors by telling them he wanted to be a cartoonist.

Eventually Drew moved to Boston and began drawing political cartoons for a variety of weekly newspapers, earning Massachusetts and New England Press Awards for his work. He also began careers carving gravestones, and capturing business meetings graphically, both of which he still does.

Drew had his first cartoon published in the New Yorker magazine in 2002. He's also done work for TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and The Boston Globe.

A huge break came in 2004, when the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. Drew doesn't play professional baseball, but feels like he earned it nonetheless. Everything else since then is just a bonus, really.

In 2006 Drew was given the National Cartoonists Society's "Reuben Award" as the country's best gag cartoonist. He is featured in Volumes 1 and 2 of the cartoon anthology The Rejection Collection (Simon Spotlight Entertainment), and is a co-originator of the New Yorker's humor blog, The Cartoon Lounge.

In 2007, Drew and his wife Lori relocated to Hoboken, NJ, just because the name sounds funny. He continues to draw and paint things.

Peachy Deegan met Drew at Bloomingdale's during the Louis Vuitton event, shown in a below article. Whom You Know strongly endorses Dernavich's work!!!

Peachy Deegan: When and how did you realize you wanted to be a cartoonist?
Drew Dernavich: I always knew I'd be involved in the fine arts somehow, but in college I observed that the path to success in the art world seemed to depend on a person taking himself way too seriously. That's when I decided I was much more comfortable with humor than with pretense.

What is your earliest drawing memory?
In third grade I was obsessed with drawing dinosaurs, and would use any excuse to do it. If my teacher asked us to go home and collect leaves I would instead draw a picture of myself getting attacked by a T. Rex while trying to collect leaves.

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you while drawing someone?
I once secretly did a caricature of a friend (the Coney Island boardwalk kind) for his birthday party. After the party the friend told me how upset he was at whoever did this amateurish and offensive cartoon portrait. That was the last caricature I've done.

What do you like to draw the most?
Pretty much anything, but I'm not particularly fond of drawing feet.

What is your favorite published cartoon?
[It is featured above with the photo of Drew]
Oh, I've always been partial to this one, just because the idea of being on a debate team in high school, when it's nearly impossible to have an informed opinion about anything and you're still awkwardly trying to figure yourself out, has always struck me as being hilarious.

What is your favorite place to be in NYC?
Above ground, having just exited the subway

What is your favorite shop?
Other Music

What is your favorite drink?
In the summer it's a vodka gimlet, but right now a pint of Newcastle does the trick

What is your favorite restaurant?
Marco and Pepe, in Jersey City

What is your favorite NYC book?
Lush Life, by Richard Price

What is your favorite thing to do in NYC that you can do nowhere else?
Stumble into something interesting around any corner. Also, you can stay out until 4 a.m. almost by accident. In most other places you have to make a concerted effort to do that.

What do you think is most underrated and overrated here?
The Yankees are the most overrated thing. The most underrated thing is the friendliness of the average New Yorker - the rudeness is the cliche which gets all the attention.

What else should Whom You Know readers know about you? I've still got my forklift drivers' license from working at a LEGO factory. Just in case.

For further information on Drew:
http://www.drewdernavich.com/bio

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