MEMO 635 - Joy Bingo!

A few weeks ago I was inspired by artist

K. Woodman-Maynard

‘s Joy Bingo, so I created my own. It was a super rough draft so when I started to ‘pretty it up’ for a spot in MEMO (the comic strip), I had the idea to feature each ‘space’ as a separate strip- and thus began a 24 day journey. I concluded it yesterday, and here, now, is the final version compiled from all 24 strips.

I have had a kind of a delightfully intense personal and professional journey over these past few weeks and whether creating Joy Bingo made any of that happen, I’ll never know. But, my own belief is that finding and expressing joy and gratitude opens up ones universe just a little bit (and sometimes a lot) wider.

This is a little different, style-wise, than my usual - I tend to be very focused on solid coloring but chose to ‘paint’ with a watercolor brush in Procreate. It gave my work a different vibe that’s very specific to this particular project and was inspired not only by K’s Bingo work, but also by the chicken paintings by artist

jill badonsky

whose work I have been admiring these past few months.

As a side note, the font that I use for “Joy Bingo” and “Over the past…” is called Creampuff and I chose it very specifically - nearly 30 years ago I started my professional event planning/producing career by creating a fundraising event in Los Angeles and my then designer used the font to make the logo. It holds a special place in my heart given the success of those particular events; and those events are at the foundation of the corporate event work that I do to this day. :) So, hello Creampuff (said in Barbra’s voice, natch)

As another side note, I am particularly fond of Bingo - I created, produced and emceed a weekly fundraising event from 2005- 2015 where I’d lead four rounds of Bingo, interview two to three guests, and raise funds for LGBT and LGBT adjacent non-profits in the NY/NJ/CT area. The event raised over $250,000 for 80+ orgs over 470 shows. I was honored by a few organizations for my work including a special citation by Daniel Dromm, member of New York’s City Council. So, you could say that “Bingo” is very special to me as well.

MEMO (the comic strip) will continue but I’ll shift gears back to our more traditional fare (well, traditional for us - my elevator pitch for the strip has become ‘it’s a variety show disguised as a comic strip’ and I think I’m happy to be able to create a space for myself where I can express myself in a variety of ways).

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