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Podcasts Off-Ramp
Off-Ramp, the only radio show with a sketch artist: Mike Sheehan
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.
Jul 11, 2014
Listen • 2:58
Off-Ramp, the only radio show with a sketch artist: Mike Sheehan
John Rabe talks with Mike Sheehan, Off-Ramp's sketch artist, about what he can capture with his pen that can't be captured by the camera.
Scenes from the Murrieta immigration protest
Scenes from the Murrieta immigration protest
(
Mike Sheehan
)

John Rabe talks with Mike Sheehan, Off-Ramp's sketch artist, about what he can capture with his pen that can't be captured by the camera.

By now, people are used to the idea of radio shows having websites and needing photographers and videographers. But I believe Off-Ramp is the only show to have a sketch artist.

Mike Sheehan has been sending us his sketchbooks for a couple years now. His most recent set of sketches took us to the immigration protest in Murrieta, but he's also taken us to the Natural History Museum at night ...

The great Shuttle Parade ...

And mobster Bugsy Siegel's Lake Arrowhead casino:

I asked him what he can capture with his pen that a photographer can't capture with their camera. He said it's about slowing down. To sketch, he is forced to sit for 10 to 15 minutes in a  single spot, and everything that's happening around him washes over him and finds its way into his brain, out his pen, and onto the paper. A photographer, he says, doesn't capture mood, nuance, and relationships in the same way.