Tom Bachtell is a self-taught artist who is an illustrator and caricaturist for The New Yorker's Talk of the Town as well as other sections, contributing regularly for 23 years.
28 Facts About Tom Bachtell
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Tom Bachtell was a finalist for the 18th Lambda Literary Awards as illustrator along with editor Robert Trachtenberg for the book When I Knew under the Belles Lettres category.
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Tom Bachtell was interested in drawing as a child and was especially fixated on the older works from New Yorker cartoonists from the 1930s and 1940s such as Peter Arno, Charles Addams, James Thurber, Syd Hoff and Al Hirschfeld.
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Tom Bachtell saw the adults as fancily dressed, laughing and drinking.
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Tom Bachtell never planned it but thought it was good and had social satire in it.
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Tom Bachtell thought drawing was not a legitimate career so he pursued other interests and went to university and conservatory.
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Tom Bachtell majored in English and music and minored in dance at Case Western Reserve University.
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Tom Bachtell trained as a pianist and studied the harpsichord at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
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At a point Tom thought he wouldn't be good enough to make a living from performing music.
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In 1983, Tom Bachtell moved to Chicago and worked as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward.
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Tom Bachtell observed other illustrations, then drew his own illustrations and sent his work to art directors.
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Tom Bachtell then got jobs in Chicago, working for the Chicago Tribune as well as some other publications and doing a caricature of Tom Wolfe for Advertising Age.
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Tom Bachtell's illustrations appeared in the Chicago Reader from 1990 through 1992.
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The first illustration of Tom Bachtell's published in The New Yorker was of David Byrne in the 30 October 1989 issue.
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Tom Bachtell began drawing for the "Talk of the Town" section of The New Yorker with the 20 March 1995 issue.
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Tom Bachtell drew four illustrations for that issue, including of Conan O'Brien and the cast of Absolutely Fabulous.
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At first Tom Bachtell was one of a rotating cast of "Talk of the Town" illustrators, including Eric Palma, Michael Witte, Robert Risko, and others, but by June 1997 he was the sole illustrator for the section.
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Tom Bachtell's work has appeared in various sections over the years; overall, Bachtell has drawn over 2800 illustrations for The New Yorker.
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In 2005, Tom Bachtell was a finalist for the 18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards as illustrator along with editor Robert Trachtenberg for the book "When I Knew" under the Belles Lettres category.
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In 2016, Tom Bachtell drew the book cover for Mark Singer's book Trump and Me, published by Penguin Random House.
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In 2018, Tom Bachtell drew Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the CD cover of Notorious RBG in Song, performed by vocalist Patrice Michaels and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang.
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Tom Bachtell took only one life drawing class and avoided art classes in order to develop a natural style.
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Tom Bachtell thought the art classes were strict, pompous, would make him obsessed with technique and weren't fun.
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Tom Bachtell developed his own style through experimentation and observation.
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Tom Bachtell had no knowledge of brush types, techniques and materials and would buy interesting brushes to experiment with them.
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Tom Bachtell met Chicago writer and music critic Andrew Patner in 1989; their relationship lasted until Patner's death in 2015.
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Tom Bachtell is currently an active chamber pianist and teaches and performs swing dancing, mainly the Lindy and Balboa.
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In 2016, Tom Bachtell was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.