#CARTWOONS ON TWITTER
Twitter. The site thrills me, teases me, and confuses the hell out of me. Most of the time, however, it inspires me to the point of brain explosion. In fact, the entirety of the OuterWeb is so completely amazing, it’s a wonder we’re not all running through the streets with our hands in the air (a phone in one, of course) shouting and cheering for the intellectual, creative freedom we have. I’m sure we would, but we’re too busy tweeting.
I laugh a lot on Twitter ~ there are a ton of funny people out there! I appreciate quick wit, I’m totally jazzed by the Tsunami of ideas, and I wish I had more time to throw my absurdity into the global feed. Alas, I am but one jester, with only so much fun inside my hat. Furthermore, I genuinely would like to get to know my Tweeps ~ I often feel like I’m talking into a black hole, you know? I had no idea how I was going to get to know anyone one on Twitter.
A few weeks ago, however, I had a tiny idea that has satiated this question. It came to me after I read the following cheeky tweet:
@Leannarenee ”Dear Fox News, keep up the good work.” – Satan
That’s funny, I thought. I could totally see that as a cartoon! And then I thought, why don’t I? I do a quick sketch, send it to the author, and voila, the proverbial ice is broken. Yes! I’ll create my own hashtag #cartwoon and that’s how I can get to know people! Of course I had no idea how @Leannarenee would react to a stranger sending her a doodle riffing off her tweet, but you don’t know ’til you try, right? I put pen to paper and tweeted her this:
@Leannarenee Hi! Your funny tweet inspired this #cartwoon! Hope you dig it!
She LOVED it! Immediately she responded with a heartfelt thanks and then we had a cool little exchange of tweets. Guess what? Leanna Renee Heiber is super cool, a fellow author and actress ~ in fact her new Victorian gothic novel ‘Darker Still’ has a very tasty hook and some great reviews definitely worth checking out. http://www.leannareneehieber.com/about-1/
Suddenly Twitter looked a lot different to me. It wasn’t a passive thread of other people’s thoughts anymore. It was an active, live space of endless conversation. And why wouldn’t @Leannarenee love a drawing? As humans we enjoy ~ nay, need ~ validation that we are being heard, and technology shouldn’t obstruct this. It should enable it!
I’ve drawn a few more #cartwoons since the first, and I look forward to scouting the Twitterverse every chance I get. As people retweet my doodles, I will mirror our exchanges on my blog, giving you the chance to get to know some of these groovers from my feed. The creative exchange is a powerful one. I don’t think I’m going to be any less inspired by Twitter anytime soon!
