B14. Terrace Review — Wednesday, March 14, 1990 “it’s art,. but can it be a career? | The problem of how to make a living as an artist is just be- ginning to come up on the horizon of young Rodney San-_ ches’ ambitions, but a B.C. university may be in the process OF ‘Providing part of the answer. by Betty Barton Rodney Sanches is a 14-year- old Grade 9 student at Thornhill Junior Secondary School. And he already knows that he would like to get into cartooning or commercial art for an ad agen-. _ ey. Rodney began drawing at age three or four, and his mom marked indelibly ‘on her: ‘sewing machine — it’s a very elemen- - cartoon characters. His port- tary stick man! In Grade |, Bank of Montreal Hallowe’en poster contest. He has been entering and winning poster con- tests ever since. Last summer, he won a transportation poster con- test sponsored by the provincial | Ministry of Transport. First prize was a trip to Victoria for | Rodney and his mom. They had lunch with then-Minister of .- Transport Neil Vant and toured the Parliament Buildings. He ‘also recently won second prize Rodney won a: still has. the evidence of it of $25 in a Kermode Friendship Fifteen-year-old cartoonist Rodney Sanches puts the finishing touches on one of his “big noses”. This highly visible trait has become the trademark of Sanches’ Kids Unlimited. | This week’s B.C. | best sellers Non-Fiction | _ . The Canadian Green Consumer Guide Troyer & Moss * . Birds of Vancouver Bovey & Compbell . Dance of Anger ’ Lerner . The Lighthearted Cookbook Lindsay C.C.H. Tax Guide Anderson’ . What Colour is Your Parachute Bolles . Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Panati . Living in the Light ‘Gawain . The Wealthy Barber . Chilton . Use Your Head Auzan SWnmAAwaAun= — Fiction Ludlum Steele | James - Kinsella. Brooks King Barker Garcia Marquez . Deighton Koontz . Bourne Ultimatum . Daddy . Devices dnd Desires 4, The Miss Hobbema Pageant 5, Scions of Shannara - 6. The Dark Half “7, The Great and Secret Show 8: Love in the Time of Cholera 9. Spy Line 10. The Bad Place ACR ST IPSSI ss art. class. noses. Society poster contest. Rodney’s favorite subjects are folio of drawings show a pro- gression ‘in his work and an evolution of style. He explains that he likes the impact of lots of black and white in his drawings, with the colors secondary and accenting certain portions. Rodney’s art tools include a Paper-mate metal roller ball pen, felt markers and Xerox paper. Rodney’s early characters have only three fingers on each. hand,.‘* ‘Cause I couldn’t seem to manage the.whole hand,’’ he says. Many artists agree that hands are the most difficult obstacle to overcome in anatomy drawing. Rodney has also refined his characters’ lips © from a straight line to having a fuller bottom lip.. He started his ‘‘big noses’, for which his works are now rec- ognized, in 1987, He says that practice and studying other car- toonists’’ work are his main teachers. and Calvin-and-Hobbs cartoon strips in detail. — Rodney’s older sister Nicole is an artist, too. She does more” realistic drawings of models and portraits of people. -Rodney says, ‘‘“My dad shakes his head when he looks at my cartoons. And mom wants me to concen- strate more on school.’’ ‘He ex- plains that he is already on the Honour Roll and doesn’t know what else they expect. He always has time to do homework. and draw. Rodney likes English, even though he can’t spell very well. He keeps hinting at a Spell- rite for Christmas, or a com- puter or art books, but he says he keeps getting ‘‘underwear and socks’’. Rodney has just joined the Annual Club at school. His sister volunteered his services. He thinks his cartoons will make a nice addition to their school annual, Rodney says some kids really like his pictures, others think they're stupid. A display of his art work, dating from 1987 to the present, is hung in the hallway at Thornhill Junior Secondary School. His art teacher, Mr. Radelet, is trying to help him expand his artistic abilities by assigning Rodney ‘non-cartoon’ topics in When Rodney ex- amines his realistic figures, he notes that they are not properly proportioned because he is so used to exaggerating certain characteristics, such as his He is also learning ‘shading’ at school. Rodney says it can take him from three days to two months to finish a piece of art work. He says that if a topic is “‘too bland, I'll put it aside, and possibly never finish it.’’ The topics of his cartoons are about school, generally. One of his characters, ‘‘Locker Rocker’, terrorizes teachers everywhere. Many. of the situa- tions in his cartoons are exag- -gerations of real-life situations. He tries to make it ‘‘a little more _ offbeat” to twig people’s funny- bones. Rodney’s unique _ signature on all his work is Kids ; Unlimited. If he had a real com- pany, that is what he would call ‘it, Rodney is anxious ‘to talk to. people in the art field and to find out how. they got their training. He knows it’s still a few years - before he goes on to artistic | training, but he: wants to be prepared. . SFU Arts co- operative The co-op program at Simon Fraser University might be just the thing for Rodney Sanches. The co-op program in the Facul- ty of Arts brings together stu- - world 4 employers who benefit. from. the: =: | dents ‘who desire- some: reall . _ experience’’ and: students’ fresh ideas and ‘rele- vant skills and knowledge... Students enrolled in SFU’s co- ‘op program alternate regular academic semesters with four ‘paid work terms. Most arts co- op students are placed in jobs which involve their field of study, Roughly 50 percent of job placements are with government departments, while 40 percent are with private companies and: continued on page’B15. — The best from | the stacks by Harriet Fjaagesund | He studies Garfield - | My War With Goggle-Eyes by Anne Fine Juvenile fiction published by Little, Brown and Company Kitty never minded her mother dating after the divorce. She even liked some of the boyfriends. But Gerald Faulkner is another matter altogether! For one thing, he’s old. At least fifty, and in Kitty’s eyes that - places him back somewhere with the dinosaurs. He’s also boring. Boring beyond all hope of redemption. And Kitty finds his habit of goggling at her mother quite disgusting. But what really makes the fur fly are his views on nuclear weapons. Goggle-eyes actually believes nuclear weapons are a sane defense. And to Kitty, who is in the anti-nuclear movement, : this is the last straw! She cant’t understand how her normally sane mother could fall for this turncoat..Her younger sister adores him. Even the family cat has fallen under his spell. But Kitty has some pretty good ideas about how to nip this romance in the bud. War has been declared. She is determined to route the enemy. But Goggle-eyes proves he is no ordinary foe. This is an excellerit read for older children and adults alike. Ann Fine is the author of the critically acclaimed Alias Madame Doubtfire and The Granny Project. Ruthann and Her Pig by Barbara Ann Porte Juvenile fiction published by Orchard Books ~ Ruthann lives out in the country on a farm. She has a pet pig that she loves more than anything else in the world. Ruthann and her pig do just about everything together. ~ Ruthann’s pig is a very good-looking pig. He is clean and tidy and very careful to always remember his manners. He lives in the house with Ruthann and her parents. Frank is Ruthann’s cousin. He lives in the city. Frank doesn’t have any pets because he is allergic to animal fur and bird feathers. He is not allergic to Ruthann’s pig though. The pig doesn’t have fur or feathers. There are wild children on Frank’s school bus. He could use some protection. What he needs is an attack pig. If he could just borrow Ruthann’s pig for a few days... This is a delightful story for younger children. The illustrations are almost as much fun as the story itself. Other titles by Barbara Ann Porte are: for beginning readers | — Harry's Visit and Harry’s Dog; for older readers — Jesse’s Ghost and Other Stories and The Kidnapping of Aunt Elizabeth, The Miss Hobbema Pageant by W.P. Kinsella Adult fiction published by Harper & Collins Life on the Ermineskin Indian Reserve is never boring with Silas Ermineskin and Frank Fencepost around to liven things up. This collection of fourteen stories offers us a glimpse of both the, lighter and darker sides of life on the reserve. With memorable characters such as Mad Etta, the. medicine- woman long on wisdom and short on temper;: David -One-wound, famous for stripping cars of all four wheels in under four minutes; the not quite honest Chief Tom Crow-eye; and Phil Cardinal, an urban native in search of his roots. It’s hard to explain exactly. what it is that makes this book so darn good. The words have a natural flavor that is somehow just right. I was left with the feeling that the characters were real peo- ple that I had known all my life. Canadian author W.P. Kinsella is the author of Shoeless Joe which was recently made into the movie Field of Dreams, The fowa Baseball Confederacy, and The Fencepost Chronicles. -