Given the chance, Bored Panda reached out to the artist with some questions! When asked about his decision to avoid commenting on current events or trends, Harry explained, “I’m not particularly interested in commenting on these things; there are plenty of other cartoonists who do it much better than I can. My cartoons are quite autobiographical, with lots of dogs, trees, nature, and the occasional human. I’m all about nature. I draw what I love…trees! My process removes me from anything else happening in the world. My meditation. I think it keeps me sane. Plus, laughter is a nice elixir for depression. My cartoons have evolved into the autobiographical form. If you want to get to know me as a person, just look at my cartoons because I’m in all of them.”
For aspiring cartoonists, the cartoonist kindly offered heartfelt advice rooted in patience and perseverance. “You must stay true to yourself… at all costs, you must stick with your own unique process, even if you end up poor working at a toll booth for the rest of your life. This is the risk you take to be an artist, to do the thing that brings you joy for the rest of your life. When I was in my late 20s, I was on welfare. I was poor, but I continued with my process, head down, oblivious to what success could be. I was in my mid-30s before I started making real money and was able to quit my job in restaurants. Young people today need to slow down. It takes years or decades to master your process. I found everything I needed in my process and that continues to this day.”
Storytelling is at the heart of Harry’s work, and he approaches it with a narrative perspective. “I see my drawings as a piece of a longer narrative. I’ve always tried to make my work seem as though the reader is dropping in on a longer narrative—a narrative leading up to the art, and the narrative continues after the art. The reader is simply dropping in on the story. Sometimes, I will stare at one of my drawings, a drawing of a magnificent oak tree in the woods with a dog and a man walking together, but it’s not a cartoon yet. I’ll stare at this drawing and imagine that the man is saying something to the dog and that’s where ideas start to flow for me.”
Describing his creative process, Harry shared how it unfolds naturally. “Honestly, most of the time I just start drawing a tree and that’ll turn into some landscape…I’ll add a figure walking a dog…a caption eventually comes. So, it’s a purely organic process for me now. I just start drawing and I end up with a cartoon. There’s no pre-meditation whatsoever. This process is different when I work with Steve Martin. My inspiration comes from simply living.”
Harry’s deep connection with nature and animals also plays a significant role in his art. “I have a dog, Junior, and he’s beautiful, and I love him very much. We spend a great deal of time together, and naturally, he inspires my work. Animals and nature are some of my favorite things and I don’t know why this is, but it is. Being in nature is calming and peaceful, and drawing nature from my memory of these long hikes (much like the old Chinese landscape artists used to do), continues that peaceful meditation when I’m sitting at my desk.”
