When you go to the Riverfront Park Concerts this summer, of course the first place you’ll want to hit is the Tom Dwyer booth. Along with all the fun of past years we have something new: the chance to meet artist Keith Tucker. Keith’s dynamic career covers everything from mural painting to state-of-the-art special effects, and since January 2011 we’ve been privileged to have his unique style of political cartoons in our newsletters and on our website.
Although Keith is currently a resident of Milwaukie he started out in Los Angeles. Hollywood can be a great place for a kid, and Keith took full advantage. “I spent most of my childhood running around the CBS Studio lot, soaking up the 
atmosphere of the movies. I was hooked.” His love for art started in his childhood as well, where he spent most of his time drawing mosters and superheroes. “My artistic heroes growing up were Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, and Tex Avery,” artists whose influence is readily apparent in Keith’s current work. As his art matured he became part of the influential Los Angeles Mural Movement of the 1970’s, painting murals on walls across the city.
Eventually, Los Angeles became too small of a canvas and Keith moved to Hawaii. As it turns out, this was to be a fateful move… he not only discovered a love for Tiki art that continues to this day, but he also discovered a love for Suzanne, his wife, which also continues to this day. “One of the stand-out experiences of my time in Hawaii was 
meeting Paul and Linda McCartney. They saw a 200-foot-long mural I’d done in downtown Honolulu and asked to meet me. I ended up painting a backdrop for their Wings Over America tour, and then being flown to LA for the tour party. Everyone was wearing white, and my friend and I painted them with airbrushes. For a 23-year-old, that was truly amazing.” The Hawaiian influence stays strong in many other areas of Keith’s life as well, from his love for gardening and nature, to the brightly colored shirts he frequently wears, to the “Weird Tiki Comics” that he writes and draws.
In the 1980’s, Keith’s childhood interest in movies drew him back to Los Angeles, this time as a storyboard artist. Given his love of movies, science fiction, and cartoons it was perhaps 
inevitable that Keith found himself storyboarding on productions like Star Trek, Pinky & the Brain, Robocop, Animaniacs, Addams Family, X-men, Spiderman, and many, many more. “Storyboarding is an interesting field, because each director you work with is different. Some know exactly what they are looking for in a scene, while others are looking for inspiration. Either way, a storyboard artist can have a major impact on the look and feel of a film.” Keith’s vision for movies has proven invaluable for the studios he has worked for, winning him one Emmy in 1998 for his work on Pinky & the Brain, and a second in 2006 for Tutenstein.
Four years ago, family issues brought Keith here to
Portland (Milwaukie, actually) but that hasn’t slowed him down at all. Not satisfied with his active illustration and storyboarding projects, Keith decided to enter the world of political cartoons with his weekly “What NOW?!! Toons“. (We’re priveleged to have the new “What NOW?!!” toon posted on our website each week.) This bold and insightful one-panel strip has drawn positive notice from Progressives like Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes, and investigative reporter 
Greg Palast said WhatNOW?!! is “Pow and Zap right to the kissers of the Washington Junta and the media spewmeisters”. Keith is also working with a collaborator on a historical graphic novel, and you can see his tiki art in a group show at Elroy Artspace through August, and… well, you get the idea. Keith may be a very busy man, but we do know where he’ll be next… at our booth at the Sellwood Riverfront Concerts. We hope to see you there, too!
