“I am a senior with a new cartoon strip about aging and relationships.” That’s what Laura Lynn Eggleston wrote in her first email to us at Fifty-Five Plus. Identifying herself as a “71-year-old Ottawa artist,” she asked if we’d be interested in featuring her cartoons in print. Indeed, we’re delighted to showcase Laura’s humorous—and relatable—takes on aging.
That’s why we’re presenting this new cartoon strip you can follow in every issue and we’re also introducing the fascinating woman behind it.
As Laura reveals, “I decided at eleven years old, in 1964, that I wanted to be an artist.” Originally from Saskatoon, she attended the University of Saskatchewan, majoring in art and graduating with a bachelor of education. After teaching around Regina in her 20s, she says, “I ran away to Toronto to become a starving artist and was happier with that lifestyle. I was able to become a caricaturist for events through entertainment agents. This gave me time and freedom to paint and to do amateur theatre,” she explains.
Amateur theatre led her to clown training. “By 1995, when my husband was transferred to Ottawa, I had also evolved into Bunky the Clown, so that I could entertain children with face-painting, balloon sculptures and puppet story times.”
In 2020, the multi-talented creator began doing illustration and produced a series of humorous greeting cards. Then came the cartoon strip, Lola and Pepe. Laura says it’s “about a senior couple navigating their way through the joys and difficulties of aging. Some cartoons are biographical; others are highly exaggerated.
I couldn’t resist throwing in the odd provocative theme like women and weight or financial status, or Western medicine.”
“The theme,” she says, “is how to deal with aging and relationships with humour, humility and optimism.”
As you follow along, you’ll notice appearances by 93-year-old Great Grandma, rescue kittens and the daughter and her boyfriend with the same name: The Sams.
To find out more about Laura and her work, see caricaturesandclowns.com; fineartamerica.com/profiles/lauralynn-eggleston
