Jonathan Plotkin is a nationally published editorial cartoonist, illustrator, educator and patron of the arts in all of its many forms. He firmly believes in the power of art to enlighten and nurture communities across the human spectrum in an effort to find beauty and truth in their everyday world.
Jonathan has been drawing in one shape or form nearly all of his life. Born in Chicago toward the end of Eisenhower's first term in office, his family moved east to Longmeadow, Massachusetts when Jonathan was eight years old.
He came of age during the volatile 60’s when all rules and conventions seemed to be tossed out the door. The great underground Comics of the day, Zap, Bijou Funnies, The Furry Freak Brothers and some of their contributors, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton anZap, Bijou Funniesd Art Spiegelman have all influenced his work and motivated him to become an editorial illustrator and cartoonist.
Thomas Nast, Herbert Block, Saul Steinberg and the great Editorial cartoonists of the day Paul Conrad, Jeff MacNelly and Paul Oliphant also informed Jonathan’s art as well as his political and social opinions which for the most part have not waivered for over 50 years.
Jonathan’s work includes editorial illustration assignments for traditional print and electronic media as well as mural, menu and collateral art design for the restaurant, hospitality and consumer product industries.
As a child and to this very day Jonathan has been a prolific doodler. Just ask his wife or kids. There is not a piece of paper in the house that doesn’t have something scribbled or drawn on its surface. Growing up it would be years before he realized that doodling in school actually helped him to learn by allowing what he was hearing in class to be imprinted into the images he was creating. But help it did!
Jonathan is a firm believer in the power of doodling to assist kids and adults of all ages to retain information especially if they are inclined to be visual learners as he is. The Spontoonist, or spontaneous cartoons, is a direct result of this effort to teach and inspire others to pick up a pencil or pen and allow their minds eye to register and retain information through the magic of drawn images.
Jonathan is also Co-Founder and Strategic Business Manager of The Drawing Board, which brings the creativity of New Yorker cartoonists to businesses that want help with innovation and strategic thinking.
In retreats and workshops, Jonathan and his colleagues explore what is known about how cartooning and humor affect our neurologic function, how we think and how we can make changes in our lives. You can get a fascinating introduction to this in a paper written by Jonathan’s business partner, Pat Byrnes, who is a New Yorker Magazine cartoonist, called The Science of Cartoon Thinking.
When we visually reframe issues as a source of amusement, we get better at finding what we need to change and how we ourselves need to adapt to that change.
-From “The Science of Cartoon Thinking”
Jonathan is excited to bring the joy, laughter and creativity of The Spontoonist and The Drawing Board to Living Whole Online.