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Excerpts
taken from: Hi Class Magazine/ Bergen County/ Sept.-Oct. 1999
Article: "The Charms of Southern Vermont"
by Jane and Marius Rubin
One of the most charming parts of the state is Mount Snow Valley in Southern Vermont, a leisurely 4 hour drive from NYC. The area entices travelers year round with its breathtaking beauty and myriad of activities: nature walks, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, golf, swimming, skiing, along with antiquing, wine tasting, sightseeing and much more. Start your trip in Wilmington, a quaint little village with an assortment of boutiques, crafts stores, art galleries, antique shops and restaurants. Don't miss a visit to The Art of Humor Gallery, a short drive from the center of town. The gallery features the art of internationally acclaimed cartoonist Skip Morrow, author of the best selling "I Hate Cats Book". Call 802-464-5523 for an appointment. It will put a smile on your face.
Excerpts
taken from: Northeast Outdoors/ September 1999
Article: "A Gallery Geared Toward the Funny Bone"
by Ray LaRocque.
The Mount Snow Valley of Vermont
is a well known winter resort area. But the folks up that way are
trying to get the word around that this beautiful area surrounding
the village of Wilmington is also a fun place to be in the summertime.
After inviting a few of us travel writers to visit, I discovered
something I had never seen before -- a gallery featuring The Art
of Humor. Some might want to debate whether or not humor is an
art form, but once you visit The Art of Humor Gallery in Wilmington
and get to talk with Skip Morrow and his wife, Laraine (the gallery
is at their home), you'll have to agree this is an attraction any
camper staying in the area would savor.
Their home, featuring Skip's studio and work
tools is in itself a showplace. The gardens are not only beautiful,
they're innovative. A water fountain for instance, designed by Skip,
is spouting from a huge boulder. There is a treehouse, also designed
and built by Skip, for his two daughters, which visiting children
love to explore and admire. There is about a mile of walking paths
through their 15-acre grounds. Worn by frequent use but easy to navigate,
the paths have no difficult climbs or rough footing, and all of them
have spots with scenic vistas.
The
gallery is the main attraction, though. This is its first full season
of operation and it has yet to be discovered by much of the traveling
public. Visitors get a personal tour, sometimes up to the studio where
the artist demonstrates the advantages of working with computers.
Browsing in the gallery, visitors linger,
snicker, laugh, pause and come back to the same cartoon to get the
point. Skip said his favorite illustrations are the ones that are
more subtle and take a little longer to figure out. Some take a couple
of minutes, but Morrow recalls one visitor who came back a year later
to finally understand the point of the picture that had puzzled him.
The new gallery is really a showcase for what Skip calls his bizarre
originals and prints. His admittedly "warped" sense of humor
has brought success to big name advertising campaigns. Some of these
advertisements are displayed in the gallery.
Where
does he get all his ideas?
"I think," says Skip, "everyone
has weird thoughts. When I have weird thoughts, I write them down.
Kind of a 'what would happen if '... sort of thing."
The new gallery is an informal sort of place
and there is no admission fee. Call for an appointment and you'll
get a personal tour and chance to see it all -- the beautiful home,
the gardens, walking paths, and best of all, a chance to talk with
the artist.
Excerpt
taken from: The Monitor/ McAllen, Texas/ Oct. 4, 1981
Article: "Cat Controversy Continues!"
by Dr. Patricia De La Fuente
If, as the Chicago Sun-Times
claims, Skip Morrow will "joyously offend hundreds of thousands
of cat lovers" with his second I HATE CATS BOOK, he will also
get at least a glimmer of a smile from some I-Love-Cats-people with
his cat-on-the-screen-door-about-to-be-electrocuted idea, which is
one that has undoubtedly crossed the mind of many an otherwise devoted
cat-lover.
Excerpts
taken from: Massachusetts Recorder/ October 6, 1981
Article: Cartoonist: "It's not cats I hate, but some cat lovers"
by Kathleen M. Norton, Associated Press Writer
"I don't hate cats, I'm just a cartoonist using them as a vehicle to humor," says Morrow, creator of the best-selling "The Official I Hate Cats Book."
With two cats padding happily around the
renovated farmhouse he shares with his wife, Laraine, it's hard to
accuse the 29-year-old New Jersey native of experimenting with the
ideas before putting them down on paper. Lucy, the youngest cat who
was won in a raffle, even perches on a shelf above his drawing board
and basks in the studio lights as Morrow sketches away. Still, with
The Second Official I Hate Cats Book recently
released and The Official I Hate Cats Calendar hot in demand,
one wonders exactly how Morrow comes up with ideas that hit the funnybone
so directly.
"It's not the cats I hate, it's some
cat lovers," he says, explaining that he got into the business
of drawing cats under fire when he became fed up with the market clog
of "cute cat drawings" a few years ago.
"People were making a lot of money off
of drawing cute cats," Morrow says, referring to the various
animated felines who were fast gaining popularity. "It got to
the point where I said, 'Enough is enough.' I really hate schmaltz,"
he adds with a grimace.
The fact that "cats have people trained
and abuse them" makes people relate to the cartoons, according
to Morrow. "I'm no cat expert, it's just logic."
Excerpts
taken from:
Article: SKIP MORROW: Kitty Literature in Vermont
by Robin Horton
Interestingly
enough, people have fetishes, phobias and fascinations for cats in
other countries, too. It's not just an American quirk. "Cats
are a universal," according to Morrow. And, as if to prove it,
his book is now being sold in approximately ten foreign countries,
from Denmark and Australia to Japan.
Morrow laughs as he recalls that the
Japanese, although they could relate to the cat humor, were unable
to understand one cartoon because it made use of the American custom
of breaking the wishbone. In the cartoon, a cat is being struck by
lightning as a man and a woman pull apart a wishbone. The Japanese
called New York to inquire as to why this was funny. "We do not
understand why two people are breaking the breastbone of a chicken."
(The nice thing about Morrow's book is that it is so easily "translated"-
it requires only a change on the cover and the title page. The cartoons
themselves have no captions).
Excerpts taken from: The Royal Gazette, Bermuda/ July 25, 1989/ Article: "Making a living out of hating cats"
Mr.
Morrow is author of two cartoon books -- The Official I Hate Cats
Book and The Second Official I Hate Cats Book
-- which reached celebrated and, at one point, simultaneous success
on the New York Times bestseller list. And it was in Bermuda, he says,
where he first tested and tried his cartoon capers.
Mr. Morrow, who was visiting the Island
last week with his wife and daughter, said he actually first put pen
to the cartoon pad while working in Bermuda 10 years ago. The musician
from Vermont sang James Taylor and Jimmy Buffet tunes at the Carriage
House by night. By day he dabbled in cartooning while sitting is his
studio or, on the beach.
"It was almost like going to school,"
he recalls. "By the time I was here I was a little road-weary,
tired. It was nice to put down roots for a while."
Then proprietor Mr. Gordon Henry provided
him with a steady income and a place to live. And the Carriage House
audience was a ready-made test market. Mr. Morrow would pass his sketchbook
around while he sang, and gauge reactions "like a fly on the
wall."
Coming
up with ideas isn't as difficult as it might seem, either, he adds.
"All I try to do is look at the sillier side of things,"
he says. The cartoonist says he looks at many of life's ordinary situations
and tries to see their lighter side.
"Just think of what it would be
like if your professional responsibility was thinking up silly things,"
he says. "Seeing work on a billboard or in a book is satisfying,"
Mr. Morrow adds. "It's nice to know you're making people laugh."
Now Mr. Morrow says he's moving from
the old pen and paper method to more sophisticated technology -- using
computers that can stretch and shrink images "like bubble gum."
"Sooner or later everything is
going to be in digital form," he explains. Now he draws on a
digitizing tablet manufactured by the Kurta Corporation. Recognizing
his talent with this equipment, Kurta flies Skip all over the country
to demonstrate its use.
Excerpts
taken from: The Inquirer and Mirror/ Nantucket, Mass./ July 2, 1992
Article:
"Cat hater" Skip Morrow ponders life after success
by Anne Phaneuf, Contributing Writer
Most
artists come to Nantucket during the busy summer months to find patrons,
recognition, and, if they're lucky, maybe even a little success. Skip
Morrow- artist, photographer and musician- comes here to take a break
from it all.
Most
people here know Morrow as the singer/guitarist who has performed
at the Brotherhood for a few weeks every summer for the past 16 years.
They know his powerful voice and easy ability to knock out James Taylor
and Van Morrison numbers. What most (Nantucket) people don't know,
however, is that Morrow drew the original I Hate Cats Book,
and is a man whose first step into the publishing world at age 28
put him on the New York Times best seller list for two years.
His sequel which came out a year later
in 1981, was also an instant success, and Morrow became one of only
a handful of people ever to have two books on the New York Times
best seller list at the same time.
Since then he has published six other books,
all satires on different social trends, produced work for national
advertising campaigns, and created illustrations for other books.
He no longer has to perform for a living, but continues to do so simply
because he loves it.
In that way, Morrow, who lives in Vermont
with his wife Laraine and two daughters, has much to say about success,
its random nature, and the importance of not caring too much about
it. To artists who crave it and those disheartened by their inability
to achieve it, Morrow offers words of caution.
"In the arts, there's a real truth
in that if you drive too hard at something, it puts an edge to your
work--an edge that will only get in your way," he said. "Whatever
you do, you have to do because you love it. That should be payment
in itself."
Ask
Morrow today how his success happened, and the artist will give the
same answer he always gives.
"I don't know," he said. "I
did those drawings because they were fun. Anything I've ever made
money at, I never did for the money. Whatever kind of cartoonist I
became was based on things happening in my life."
"There were a lot of people around
me at the time who could draw better than me," he added. "I
had just been doing it all along, working hard to improve my skills.
So when everything fell into place, I was prepared to respond."
"Being an artist is no different
from being a runner. If you don't keep working, if you don't stay
in shape, you don't know if you're going to be prepared to respond.
On the other hand, if everything is in line when you see your window
of opportunity, then you can shoot right through it."
Excerpts
taken from: The Valley News/ Wilmington, VT / April 4, 1986 Article:
SKIP MORROW: MORE THAN THE "I HATE CATS" GUY
By Bonney McGergie
Skip's
main project right now is greeting cards, with hundreds already out
on the market. "They are messages for people who don't have time
to write one themselves, but can recognize a good one." He also
likes the opportunity to work in full color using a watercolor wash
to emphasize his work. "I took a break from writing books,"
he explained. "I realized if I didn't start doing something else,
I would be doing black and white books for the rest of my life."
Greeting cards also give Skip a chance to "approach any subject
I want." The cards are manufactured by Recycled Paper Products,
and are known as Foot Notes.
Skip
did a cartoon for Hitachi in Japan. The company wanted a ten-minute
animated cartoon showing the "History of Technology" for
Japan's version of Disney's Epcot Center. It shows a 'typical family'
in about 15 years. "Basically they wanted my version of The Jetsons."
When asked if he planned to syndicate his work for the newspapers,
Skip pointed out that syndication is "a lot like being married.
You get caught up in whatever slot you put yourself in." He is
also disappointed in the reproductive quality of his work in newspapers.
Several syndicates have approached him and he "won't rule out
doing a strip."
Skip's crowning achievement in his musical
career came last year when an old friend whom he hadn't seen for ten
years called and asked him if he was still singing and if he would
be interested in being the opening act for the New England Emmy Awards
at the Wang Center in Boston. He did, and while he was singing a take-off
of Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." called "I Love T.V."
(with an orchestra and 30 dancers), a video of out-takes from local
news shows was shown on a wide screen behind him. Skip, who lives
in Wilmington, VT with his wife and 3-year old daughter, still does
work for local businesses as well as designs and draws ads for some
of the larger corporations in America. His greeting card associated
products are a booming business and even though he modestly didn't
admit it, he has had the unusual distinction of having his first two
books on the New York Times bestseller list. And it is obvious that
he really enjoys what he's doing.
Taken from: Transworld Airlines Flight Magazine/ December 1996
Morrow,
of Wilmington, VT, is Robin Williams with a pen. "Dear Sis,
I will never forget to send you a birthday card!...Who knows, someday
I may need one of your kidneys."
Morrow carries a credit-sized digital
recorder in his wallet and a sketch pad in a leather satchel so he
never loses an idea. "Most people have a lot of cool thoughts
go through their head. But they do just that--go through their head.
Especially the weird ones."
The author of The Official I Hate
Cats Book, a novelty item that hit the New York Times bestseller
list in l979, sometimes draws from observation, sometimes from experience.
Pondering a school commencement ceremony, he imagined seeing people
in mortarboards walking around, otherwise clad in street clothes.
"It's the ultimate irony...Smart
people wearing stupid hats. Happy graduation!"
Taken
from: NBC's The Today Show/ December 18, 2000
Gene Shallot comments on 2001 Calendars.
New calendars are out in force and farce. Skip Morrow's The Joy of Smoking is the right match for anyone who wants to lighten up.
Even a tracheotomy can't
stop this nicotine noodnick.
And with castles smoke-free, even kings
have to draw at the bridge.
Attention alluraphobes! Be sure to get Skip
Morrow's I Still Hate Cats with his wild suggestions.
Now this cat is about to
be converted
into kitty foil.
And Mr. Kitty tricked onto
tracks of the feline mainline will soon be the sum of his parts.