Williamstown – David Sipress, a New Yorker cartoonist, will give a talk titled "Get it? The Art of Cartooning and the New Yorker," on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 8 p.m. The event will be held in Lawrence Hall, room 231. It is free and open to the public.
More than 250 cartoons by Sipress have appeared in the New Yorker since 1998. His cartoons and editorial illustrations have also appeared in Playboy, Harper's, The Funny Times, Utne Reader, The Washington Post, and Spectator of London, among others.
He is the author of eight cartoon books and the producer and host of "Conversations with Cartoonists," a series of live interviews with some of the leading artists of the New Yorker, staged over the past year in New York City.
Sipress will talk about the art of cartooning. He uses cartoons projected on a screen to talk about the profession, about his own work, and about the work of other cartoonists he admires. He tries to make the presentation not just funny -- the cartoons themselves usually take care of that -- but also informative about an under-discussed and much loved art form.
He will discuss the unique way in which cartoons combine drawing and writing, about how cartoonists employ both skills, about being funny, about the whole 'coming up with ideas' issue, and, of course, about the New Yorker. He will hold a Q&A session after his formal comments.
Initially inspired by European "gag" cartoonists, he also cites Saul Steinberg and other New Yorker cartoonists as his main influences. His drawing style is loose, personal, and most importantly, always built around the foundation of a funny but resonant joke.
He graduated from Williams College in 1968.
The lecture is sponsored by the departments of art, anthropology/sociology, Russian, the Williams College Museum of Art, and the Lecture Committee.
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Air Quality Alert Issued for Berkshire County
Staff reports
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The state's on an air quality alert through midnight Thursday because of the smoke from wildfires in Canada.
Berkshire residents woke up to smoky, hazy skies and a red glowing sun on Wednesday morning, but with less oppressive heat.
The Department of Environmental Protection issued an air quality alert for elevated levels of fine particles (PM2.5). This refers to microscopic airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter — about 30 times smaller than a human hair. These particles come in many sizes and shapes and can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the size of these particles can cause serious health problems because they can get deep into your lungs and even into bloodstreams. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter pose the greatest risk to health.
The air quality statewide is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. These include people with heart or lung disease such as asthma, older adults, children, teenagers, and people who are active outdoors. People with either lung disease or heart disease are at greater risk from exposure to air pollution.
MassDEP advises people in sensitive groups to reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion, take more breaks, do less intense activities, follow asthma action plans, and keep quick relief medicine handy. Watch for symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath.
EPA's air quality index rates levels from "good" at 0-50 and "very unhealthy" from 201 to 300. Residents of Williamstown can track the AQI through PurpleAir, which displays results from monitors in five sections of town.
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