Sam Klemke has been a self-described “professional face hustler” since 1980, working the easel beat at fairs and festivals in all 50 states; five Canadian provinces; England, Israel and Japan.

He is a caricature artist, whose work has earned him recognition within the pages of the online art dictionary, ArtLex, following luminaries such as the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth and France's famous, 19th-century political cartoonist, Honore Daumier.

It was an example of Klemke's political work that grabbed my attention. Thumb-tacked to a bulletin board outside a North Bend business was a comic skewing individuals involved in the current LNG debate.

The skewering of politicians is a time-honored practice among caricature artists. Cartoons by New York's Thomas Nast are credited with bringing down Boss Tweed and the infamously corrupt government of Tammany Hall. Leonardo da Vinci and Claude Monet experimented with the exaggeration and distortion, but artist Sam Klemke tells me that Al Hirschfield - whose elegant, economical caricatures informed the New York theater scene until his death in 2003 - was his hero.

“I followed him ever since high school. I used to go to the library in Denver and read all the New York Times newspapers,” declares Klemke. “On those big old machines ... you could stick your sketchbook in, and it would shine down, and I'd copy his cartoons. That's how I learned to draw.”

Klemke also cites Mad Magazine's Mort Drucker as a significant influence, and he talks about the work of contemporary artist Sebastian Kruger, whose highly exaggerated “extreme caricatures” have had a profound impact on today's emerging caricaturists.

A former resident of Coos Bay, Klemke recently sandwiched a visit to the coast between work at Medford's annual spring fling, “Art In Bloom,” and a gig May 18-20 at Oregon City's Pioneer Family Festival. He likes festivals and fairs, admitting that the career of an itinerant cartoonist has “fed my gluttony for travel.” “It's fun to be part of that whole thing,” says Klemke. “The festivals, Christmas season at the malls ...”

And who does he draw at the malls?

“Kids,” says Klemke. “Babies. Rambunctious teenagers.”

But teens sometimes give him an earful, as illustrated by his series, “Crunchy Water Festival, a catastrophic road tale,” (1998, pencil). It's an autobiographical narrative about a bad day on the job, and the grief the cartoonist takes from young mall rats.

Klemke tells me he loves to draw extreme faces.

Extreme?

“Ethnic faces,” says the artist. “Senior faces ... But they're very self-conscious about aging ... I try,” he asserts, “to get interesting and unusual looking people to accept their faces.”

I wonder if the folks featured in “Following the Money” will feel a similar acceptance, from the exaggerated smiles and winking eyes, down to the toe-tapping, “Nikki”-emblazoned sports shoes.

Teri Albert reviews art and artists for Ballyhoo! Comments on or story ideas for this column are welcome, and can be e-mailed to malbert@uci.net.