Every Tuesday, artists bring their work to The New Yorker to present to the cartoon editor, with hopes that one of their pieces will join the ranks of an art form made famous by the likes of Saul Steinberg, Charles Adams and Danny Shanahan. And every Tuesday, most of them leave, rejected.
That includes John Donohue, the Night Life editor at The New Yorker, who works on the same floor.
Except for that one time last year when he became one of the chosen few to have his work grace the inside of the magazine in October. Despite being an employee, Donohue still has to compete to have his cartoons purchased by the magazine.
Four of his cartoons are being exhibited at Union College's Nott Memorial as part of an exhibit of work by alumni, students and locals.
“These are the rejects,'' he said, in front of a display case at the Nott Memorial. Not that they are bad. In fact, they're quite funny. Just not quite New Yorker material. But the cartoons (images of whales and SUVs, among them) fit into the context of the exhibit: “Visions and Revisions: Recycled and Environmental Art,'' which runs through May 29. Other selections include a sculpture by Sandra Dovberg made up of all those annoying fake credit cards you get in the mail and a painting by local writer, James Howard Kunstler, the author of “The Geography of Nowhere.''
“There's this great tradition of struggling, struggling, struggling,'' he said about The New Yorker process. “They want to know two things: That you can come up with original ideas on a regular basis and they also want to see and this is the hard part that you have a specific style.''
Donohue's main business is words, writing blurbs for his section of the magazine, “which are a combination of preview and criticism.''
A funny thing happened a few years ago: He picked up a pencil and started drawing, something he did a little of as a boy in Westchester County.
“I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life,'' Donohue said.
“I was really frustrated with my lack of imagination.'' An English major and economics minor at Union, from where he graduated in 1990, he was always more of a logical, left-brain thinker. So, he picked up the classic, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,'' and something clicked.
“I started drawing three years ago, and I discovered I loved it so deeply that there's little else I like to do,'' he said.
When he's not drawing New Yorker-type cartoons, he sketches on the subway, which led to an inclusion last spring in an exhibition at The Big Cat Gallery, in the East Village.
Donohue uses his commute from Brooklyn's Park Slope to his office in Midtown Manhattan to clandestinely sketch fellow passengers. “The subway's got no shortage of models.'' His cover's been blown a couple of times, when people ask him if he is an art student or a cop.
“I can't draw people if they know I'm drawing them,'' he explained.
The quick pen drawings and the intrinsic bumpiness of a subway car give the sketches an eye-pleasing movement.
“It's the process that appeals to me,'' he said.
Donohue, who has also freelanced for other publications, gave that up to devote his free time to sketching and perfecting his cartoons which now number about 350. “I try to draw 10 every week.''
He also takes in a couple of art classes when he can.
“If I'd gone to art school, I'd have four years of drawing under my belt,'' he said, but added he wouldn't have the common sense as a student to understand the business side of things.
Donohue started working at the magazine in 1993 as a messenger, following a string of jobs that included a stint at a weekly newspaper in Rhode Island and a market research firm. He heard through a friend that The New Yorker was looking for messengers and landed the job.
That was before e-mail. He would carry manuscripts and cartoons around the city after picking them up at writers' homes a privilege he savored.
He then became an editorial assistant and worked his way up to Night Life editor, a role that allows him to check out new music and night clubs.
Donohue is married to the filmmaker Sarah Schenck, who was nominated for a
2004 Independent Spirit Award as the producer of the film Virgin. The couple just had their first child in March, Aurora Jane.
And her birth announcement was drawn by the new artist in the family, her dad.
ART AT UNION “VISIONS AND REVISIONS: RECYCLED AND ENVIRONMENTAL ART'' Where:Wikoff Student Gallery, Nott Memorial, Union College, Schenectady
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily Closes: May 29
Info: Mandeville Gallery Offices: 388-6729.
Note: To view work by John Donohue visit http://www.johndonohue.com