LARRY ROIBAL

5″ x 7″ Oil on canvas

If an idle mind and hands are the devils workshop, then my grandmother Alice Burke should be canonized as a saint. This weekend marks her 95th Birthday and this oil sketch of her busy hands is my gift to her.

Born Alice Kopidlowski the same year that World War I broke out. She lost her father at an early age and had to drop out of school in the third grade to work in a button factory. She met my grandfather during The Great Depression and they eloped in 1932. She made up for the lack of formal education with hard work and determination. At 95 she still reads a newspaper cover to cover every day. In her day she could sew a dress without a pattern, make a slip cover for a worn couch, wallpaper a room, change a broken window, cook a great meal, make toys out of household items to amuse her grandchildren, boost a kids ego by purposefully loosing a thousand consecutive games of checkers without ever seeming board.

Growing up I never saw her sit and eat a meal until everyone was fed. She couldn’t go away on vacation without hotels offering her employment. At 95 her failing legs have made her do what her nature never allowed, sit down. But her lack of mobility doesn’t stop her from doing for others. In her night stand she keeps a pad to record the foot size of every family member and friend, and hardly a get together passes without a gift of crocheted slippers.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Yesterday was A Field of Dreams, today, Snap Back to reality, Oh There goes gravity - Eminem

North Korea says it’s launching a space communications satellite, but most believe the latest rhetoric is a cover for testing a ballistic missile capable of reaching U.S. territory.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.”
James Earl Jones from Field of Dreams

Spring training is here!

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

In order to have bipartisanship, you need two partisans but last night it became woefully obvious that there is no longer a Republican party. Bobby Jindal seems like a nice guy, and I’ve liked him in the few occasions I’ve seen him interviewed, but he wasn’t ready for prime time and his response to the president was painful to watch.

Some remain skeptical on how we as a nation can borrow and spend record amounts and cut the deficit simaltaniously.

Ball point pen on newsprint

As traditional media goes through it’s growing pains, it’s comforting for a news junkie like me to know there are still young people dedicated to gathering news and informing others. Aaron Broder is one of 80 students reporting for Scholastic Kids Press Corp. The fourteen year old has covered presidential debates, visiting foreign leaders and has written book reviews. Whether newspapers will remain commercially viable into the future or these young reporters ply their craft on-line, having an informed citizenry is the most important variable in our future success.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Slum Dog Millionaire swept the 81st Academy Awards, winning eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, Danny Boyle, continuing to prove the axiom, every dog has it’s day.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

My mouth is agape when I read the tragic story of Sandra Herold and Travis the chimpanzee. I can’t begin to imagine the upper body strength of a 200 pound chimp. I’m dumbfounded that the laws of Connecticut allow people to own such a large and possibly dangerous animal. It’s painful to think of having a family friend so brutally attached before your eyes. I can’t imagine the courage it took to plunge a kitchen knife into your beloved pet or the heart ache of witnessing your constant companion gunned down by police. I can’t begin to conceive how long and tortuous the recovery of the poor victim or the burden Herold must live with knowing her friend will never be the same. Lastly, while I can believe The New York Post thought it appropriate to use this as fodder for a stupid cartoon, I’m deeply saddened by it.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

New Jersey’s Governor Jon Corzine was slow to learn how the union-managment relationship works. He was newly elected when he took the stage at a union rally in the state’s capital to proclaim, “We will fight for a fair contract!” …The states union members must have been confused. Whom will he fight? He was management and they were there rallying against him. Fast forward to the present downturn in the economy combined with New Jersey’s balanced budget amendment and Corzine wants to have mandatory furloughs for all state employees. Unfortunately that “fair” contract may come back to haunt him.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

I remember the anxiety I felt when I signed the mortgage for my home. The numbers may seem minuscule in comparison, but everything is relative. It’s a risk to borrow against future earnings to invest in building your present life. No matter how good the intentions or fiscally sound the plan, it’s impossible to predict all the variables. I felt the same anxiety when Donna and I had our two children, when we bought our first car or built my studio. But used responsibly, debt can be a great tool to build a future. Now, will generations of lawmakers be disciplined enough to do the legislative equivalent of staying home on Saturday nights, stretching an extra year out of that old coat or eating pasta five nights a week to pay down this 787 billion dollar mortgage? Stay tuned.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprin

Kim Jong-il’s saber rattling caused Hilary Clinton to begin her Asian trip by issuing a warning to North Korea not to undertake ballistic missile tests and to meet with families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

George Washington is getting a face lift. Perhaps the most iconic image of our first president, Emanuel Leutze’s, Washington Crossing the Delaware, is getting cleaned and a new ornate frame. Leutze took many artistic licenses in depicting the historic event. Thats a euphemism for saying it was full of historical inaccuracies, like depicting the crossing in daylight when it happened in darkness, or having horses crossing in small row boats, but the monumental 12 feet high by 21 feet wide painting never failed to draw a crowd at the Metropolitan Museum in New York since it’s gifting in 1897. The current frame didn’t do the painting justice. Leutze had ordered the original with ornate specifications, including shields at each corner, topped with an eagle crest and a ribbon with the words “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of his Countrymen.” The painting is expected to be back on view in 2011.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning news

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were both born February 12, 1809, two hundred years ago yesterday. Both were revolutionaries. Both had the unpleasant task of delivering hard truths fully knowing the consequences. Maybe that’s why they both suffered from depression. Fortunately, both had the character to deliver those truths.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lincoln.

“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Abraham Lincoln

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

What world are these guys living in, where you could bankrupt your companies, pursue strategies that bring the whole world’s financial system to it’s knees, ask taxpayers to pay for your mistakes and believe you not only should keep your job but you deserve a bonus, and a new jet?

Nice work if you can get it,
And if you get it — Won’t you tell me how?

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

With joblessness on the rise and the Dow Jones sinking like a stone, the Obama administration has gone to the full court press on the economy. The tab could rise to 3 trillion dollars.

Uptown Magazine

My Obama drawing was prominently featured in an article about Obama related artwork in this months issue of Uptown Magazine on sale today.

One Note: As a citizen, Barack Obama inspired me, as he did countless others, to put a sign on my lawn and open my checkbook in support of his candidacy. As an illustrator, I had no intention of creating a poster until I was contacted by the campaign and asked to do this drawing. As a professional and one of his early supporters, I was honored to contribute this piece. I’m proud to say that no copyright was infringed in the creation of, no private property was vandalized in the promotion of. no stickers, limited edition prints or T-shirts were sold. I offered it for free download to anyone who found their way here looking for a way to show their support for Barack Obama.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

In his efforts to presure lawmakers, President Obama is taking his case for the stimulus package directly to the people. Yesterday he held a town meeting in Elkhart Indiana and last night his first prime time news conference as President.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Its been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

Yes it has.

It may have been a long time since he rock and rolled, but Plant showed the world he hasn’t forgotten how to do the stroll. Led Zeppelin’s former front man teamed up with folk singer Alison Krauss and producer T Bone Burnett to record Raising Sand and together they strolled on stage at the Staples Center to collect five Grammy Awards.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer yesterday. The 75 year old Supreme Court Justices was a Clinton appointment in 1993 and remains the only female on the high court.  The cancer was caught in it’s early stages.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

When the morning paper seems an endless parade of stories about greedy CEO’s, the economic downturn, partisan bickering, bankruptcies, pink slips and layoffs, sometimes we need a display of humanity to wash the jaded taste from our mouths. Enter Camden New Jersey native, Jesse Coltrane. He had been exchanging instant messages and phone calls with a despondent California teenager. When he saw the image on his webcam of the teen, who had been talking about suicide, cutting his forearm with a razor blade, his action of calling the police may have saved the teens life.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Swing a cat in Washington and you’re likely to hit someone who hasn’t paid their taxes. That’s making life difficult for our new president who is having trouble finding 15 people to fill his cabinet that aren’t tax cheats. Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer each withdrew their names from consideration to be in President Obama’s cabinet because of issues over unpaid taxes. We can add their names to the list that includes Timothy Geithner, who ironically, in his capacity as Secretary of the Treasury, will be in charge of collecting back taxes, interest and penalties from the two who withdrew.

Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Thirteen prominent New Jerseyan’s were inducted into the 2008 class of the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

By category:

History:

Walt Whitman. Camden native who was among the most influential poets in history.

Paul Robeson. Scholar, actor, athlete, singer, political activist; outspoken opponent of racism. One of the first African-American students to study at Rutgers University.

Enterprise:

Guglielmo Marconi. Italian-born inventor of Wall Township who won Nobel Prize for contributions to the development of wireless technology.

Carl Sagan. World-famous astronomer, scientist, author of popular science books, who was … Continue Reading

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Even though I didn’t have a dog in the race, I have to admit that it was a great football game full of strategy, surprises and suspense. Santonio Holmes came up big on Pittsburgh’s last drive to put the Steelers ahead for good and capture the Super Bowl MVP.