Design Matters from the Archive: Roz Chast

On this episode Debbie talks to illustrator Roz Chast about how she earned a coveted spot as a cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, and how her art is informed by the brutal reality of life. “You know I don’t bound out of bed thinking ‘This is just another great day in my
endless great life.'”

Roz Chast has loved to draw cartoons since she was a child growing up in Brooklyn. She attended Rhode Island School of Design, where she majored in painting because it seemed more artistic. However, soon after graduating, she reverted to type and began drawing cartoons again.

Her work has also been published in many other magazines besides The New Yorker, including Scientific American, the Harvard Business Review, Redbook, and Mother Jones. Her most recent book is a comprehensive compilation of her favorite cartoons called Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons of Roz Chast, 1978–2006. She also illustrated The Alphabet from A to Y, with Bonus Letter, Z, the best-selling children’s book by Steve Martin.

This episode orginally aired in February 2016.