Cartooning has always been on my list of things to do when I grow up, along with being a female Charles Kuralt. (The dog I buy to take on the road with me will be a border collie that I’m going to name Dorothy). And I want to have at least one story aired on NPR.

I thought about being a cartoonist back in high school, and even spent about four minutes researching the career field in the guidance office. Study commercial art, the information said. But I had never cartooned before, and lacked sufficient advice on how to get started. In my alloted time with the guidance counselor assigned for the M-Ps, we established a three-hour perimeter as a target area for selecting a college. And then the bell rang.

I had only painted in oils up to that point, and now that I think of it, I don’t know why I didn’t die of asphyxiation. My dormer bedroom, about the size of a big closet, wreaked of turpentine and linseed oil. In the end, I did study art. But drawing was never one of my strengths. My favorite medium turned out to be watercolor. Now I’ve got to play “catch-up.”

I hope you’ll like Maven as much as I do. She’s the star of The Kitchen Sink Philosopher: an ordinary empty-nester responding to an ever-changing world, at times with strokes of genius usually lost on everyone else.

Maven is a lot like me, and maybe that’s why I’m having so much fun with her.  At first I won’t have a new cartoon up very often. I’ll have to see how it goes. Thanks for being my audience.  I hope you’ll let me know what you think.