Citizen Staff Dan Baulch
Caricature artist Anne Meyer takes a careful look at subjects Kevin Karlen and Chris Swisse during the opening day of the Dodge County Fair Wednesday.
There's fine art, and then there's fun art.
And after nine months of oil paintings, murals and illustrations, caricature artist Erin Goedtel is ready for a little summer fun.
For the eighth consecutive year, Goedtel has traveled from Minneapolis to draw caricatures at the Dodge County Fair. The event will conclude her caricature work for the season, capping off another hectic summer traveling Wisconsin and Minnesota exaggerating facial features.
"We're gypsy artists," Goedtel said Wednesday.
For Goedtel and fellow artist Anne Meyer, the artistic bug bit early.
"You are just kind of innately born with some kind of passion and skill for art, so it's something you just need to do," Goedtel said. "In school I would get so bored I would draw my teachers, and it was never very nice."
The idea of drawing cartoonish versions of people's faces sprouted quickly for the pair. Goedtel's friends often asked her to draw pictures of them while Meyer's large family proved a fertile ground for subject matter.
But caricature work isn't just something an artist can jump into.
"Caricatures are harder than exact portraits because you have to exaggerate and stretch proportions, yet keep the likeness there," Meyer said. "I only started doing caricatures seriously when I got to a point where I had been drawing people for so long I felt I could do it realistically."
According to Goedtel, drawing caricatures is a style of its own.
"It's like taking someone's face and flattening it like a pancake," Goedtel said. "Basically you're condensing someone's face into the least amount of lines as possible. It's poetry."
Being a people person is a definite must for a caricature artist. In addition to being surrounded by people while you work, it's important to interact with those you are drawing.
"Like a lot of artists, we like the human figure and the face, and every single person's face is different," Meyer said. "Every time someone sits down in front of you it's a challenge. I have to concentrate to make this look like them so they're going to like it."
"We never draw the same picture twice," Goedtel added. "Even with the same person you notice different things about them each time. I have people every year that come back, and they'll have pictures done from every year I've been here."
After the Dodge County Fair, "Caricatures by Erin" will be put away for the winter. But the art doesn't stop there.
Goedtel is involved in a wide array of projects and even worked on Prince's 2004 "Cinnamon Girl" video off his Musicology album. Her illustrations can also be seen in a video submitted for a Red Hot Chili Peppers contest and available on youtube.com at http://youtube.com/watch?v=xPEkGPspjDE.
Meyer, meanwhile, does commissions for drawings and paintings in addition to working in pottery. Examples of her work can be seen at her Web site, www.AnneMeyer.com.
Dan Baulch can be reached at dbaulch@capitalnewspapers.com.