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The Living Arts
San Francisco Bay Area Artist
Contemporary Cartoons
Meet Oliver Chin, the Man
from Mission Possible
Cartoon Artist and
Political Commentator
by M.G. Hudson
He has published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Asian Week, San Francisco Downtown
and Street Sheet and currently contributes to the New Mission News and San Francisco
Call. He is also a computer guy. You know, one of those people you always need in
your life. But what is a young computer whiz to do when the newest Recession hits?
Why, what any artist after years of development, struggle and self-awareness finds
out -- work from the core of your heart and beliefs. Forget fads, fashion and a fast
buck. Get your work "out there".
Except Oliver Chin is no hoary, old master of pen and politics. He is a fresh talent
with a wide angle viewfinder. It takes a special ability to transmogrify tragic environmental
and political news stories into a crisp image with a tag line or two that punches
our cocoon of complacency and makes us open our eyes to the real world. And sometimes
laugh. And sometimes cry. Through a cartoon, he makes it all possible.
Besides offering his web and graphic services online, Oliver has a couple of sites
devoted to his cartoons. One, Room with a
Zoo, is the saga of a recently unemployed computer "nerd" searching
for the perfect roommates. Like the energizing (BBC TV?) production from the 1970's,
Rock Follies, Oliver Chin's autobiographical elements in Room with a Zoo express
his particular generation's experiences and become an universal narrative.
The strip below is Oliver's salute for Earth Day, 2002. Now with the collaspe of
Arthur Anderson, Enron's accounting firm, the debate over Yucca Mountain and transportation
of spent nuclear waste, the announcement that more Superfund sites are having their
funds cut, etc., his highlighted vision is more than worth a thousand words. Enough
said. Enjoy. And laugh. And cry.
WxNW.org hopes to feature more from Oliver Chin in future issues.
See an other side of Oliver Chin at http://www.roomwithazoo.com/
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