I love everything Peanuts, and I grew up with them, reading the comics, the books watching the specials, having the posters and the pennant in my room and more.  This is a scene that I have appropriated from the end of first Peanuts special, the famous Charlie Brown Christmas, that debuted on December 9,1965, animated by the great Bill Melendez and produced by Lee Mendelson–a team he kept from the success of this first 25 minute network animation, that was repeated every year for decades, anticipated and watched by children of all ages.  I amended and updated the Peanuts gang to include characters that were created after the special first aired, to replace minor characters with major ones, and importantly to include a panorama of figures that represent the diversity of our America that truly is great no matter their politics, race, orientation, class, or denomination.  Franklin (born out of the Civil Rights movement, created by the conservative but socially liberal Charles Schulz) is now included, in addition to the tomboy Peppermint Patty and her “best friend” Marcie (as a nod to the LGBTQ+ community)—and Linus’ younger brother Rerun makes his appearance. Most significantly, I switched out the Christmas tree with the nesting Woodstock, named after the legendary concert, that was about “peace, music, and love” to convey the same sentiments..

To further evoke the notion of the sublime, instead of the softly falling snow in the animated sky of the original, I replaced it with the “first publicly released science-quality image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, revealed on July 11, 2022, which was the deepest infrared view of the universe to date. The first science-quality image revealed from NASA’s newest space telescope contained a hidden treasure in the form of a sparking distant galaxy surrounded by dense clusters that could contain some of the universe’s first stars.” (Space.com)

Peanuts was a driving force in my life, inspiring me to be an artist. I was the campus cartoonist since kindergarten through Brown University, and upon graduation, instead of becoming a New Yorker cartoonist, I was enlightened by Warhol and the East Village 80’s to transform the skills of bringing up ideas aesthetically to be  became a fine artist (I’m delighted to be included currently in a Whitney Museum show entitled “Shifting Landscapes” installed in the same room with some of my heroes, Basquiat and Haring, and more!).  Although making art and exhibiting are my oxygen mask and I paint full time, on my “days off” I teach fine art and have also very much  “kept it real” by teaching comics, first as the lead comics teacher at the School of Visual Arts (where I was also the head “Comics Coordinator”) and now at the University of Southern California, where in addition to teaching painting and the MFA students, I have built a Visual Narrative Art program and interdisciplinary Visual Narrative Minor  (in collaboration with the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Lucas funded School of Cinematic Studies Animation and Gaming departments, English/Dornsife and Dramatic Arts schools).  Many of my students are creating comics, but generationally have also become animators or working in animation—in part the legacy of Charles Schulz and his working with the team that created this first special, that was a lightning rod for the world we live in now for television animation—spirited originally by Schulz’s love for humanity, espoused by Linus’ speech in the show about the true, non-materialist view of Christmas. Pundits have mentioned that the mensch-like, “Tikkun olam” like behavior (a Hebrew phrase that means “world repair” and is a central principle of Judaism) make the Linus character Jewish-like, as he has such a sense of responsibility to contribute positively to the world around him. I can relate to as a son of a Jewish psychoanalyst—and of a raised Southern Baptist mother—I am a religious mutt, but feel culturally Jewish, and dedicated my life to the power of my art to teach and to teaching future generations of both fine and narrative artists to do the same.  When Charles Schulz died, he came to me in a dream, I remember distinctly his demeanor, even sweater and glasses, who “thanked me” for teaching the spirit of the art of cartooning to thousands of students.

Scott McCloud, in his canonical book that I teach Understanding Comics, discusses how the power of iconic cartoon characters such as the Peanuts gang, is able, like a “smiley face”, to be relatable for any viewer—no matter who they are—to “suture” into the character, “masking”  into them, like when playing an avatar in a RPG game, so they “become” them and go on a transcendent journey.  I hope that with this painting, the same power happens, and instead of the theme of specifically Christmas, one can be able to “feel” the greatness of being one of many, a part of a greater culture, in a world that is just one planet among the billions that exist in space.  Especially in our time of strife, its edifying to feel one with the universe, and no matter what our politics, identity, or religion, and I hope this painting is a vehicle to be able to have the spiritual experience of objectifying ourselves and therefore our interrelationship with all others on our planet to bring about peach and harmony with the world.