Amateur artist uses Costa Mesa officials as models

Lynn Talmon believes in the power of doodling.

The lifelong Costa Mesa resident, who has a master’s in counseling psychology, said sketching is “extremely beneficial” for one’s learning and concentration.

So when she visited City Hall on Tuesday night, hoping to rekindle her interest in civic affairs, she felt the itch to sketch. She didn’t get up to speak — she just drew.

But instead of sketching a favorite flight of fancy, from her seat in the council chambers Talmon became inspired by what was directly in front of her: five politicians, the city attorney and chief executive, sitting behind the dais, discussing the issues of the evening.

“I felt like each person, as they were talking, I’m getting to know who they are while I’m drawing them,” Talmon said in an interview following the meeting.

Talmon, a former fashion designer, is the first to admit she’s no cartoonist. She didn’t even plan on sharing her notebook drawings to the world but after showing them to her husband, he encouraged her to post them online.

So on Tuesday evening, after leaving the meeting, she did just that, creating what may be a first-ever in an otherwise contentious City Hall atmosphere: non-satirical and apolitical drawings of the Costa Mesa City Council, the city attorney and chief executive.

The sketches were posted on Costa Mesa Public Square, a Facebook group with more than 4,000 members.

“I hope no one is offended!” Talmon wrote in her post. “I’m not an artist, I’m an art therapist!”

The drawings went online at 10:01 p.m., when the meeting was still in progress and wouldn’t adjourn for about five more hours. Talmon couldn’t stay the entire session. She had to leave around 8:30 p.m., during the first break, to tend to matters at home.

Twenty-four people have clicked “like” to show their approval.

In an interview, Talmon said she hopes the drawings bring some lightheartedness to Costa Mesa’s political scene.

Sketching the council members and staff, Talmon said, “was a different way to connect with them, other than something heavy and serious.”

The prevailing sentiment is that veteran Councilman Gary Monahan got the best, most lifelike sketch. He also appears to have been the only one to be ascribed positive-looking facial expressions.

“I thought it was really fun,” Monahan said of the drawings. “Anything to lighten up a meeting, especially when we go until 2:15 in the morning, is great.”

Mayor Steve Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Councilwomen Sandy Genis and Katrina Foley — as well as CEO Tom Hatch and City Attorney Tom Duarte — appear stoic or serious, maybe even a little sad.

During the meeting, Mensinger mentioned that he would not be riding a horse during Saturday’s OC Fair Cattle Drive. Instead, he’d be viewing it from the back of a wagon, “where 52-year-old men belong.”

Talmon put Mensinger’s quotation next to his drawing.

“Those little off-handed comments are very revealing,” she said.

Mensinger, after seeing his sketch, said he “would love to have an autographed copy.”

“Anyone who has the patience to sit through a council meeting and draw us,” he added, “is an extraordinarily patient human being.”

Genis, when shown the sketches, laughed.

“If people were going to draw pictures of something, I don’t know that they’d chose the City Council,” she said.

“I think they’re kind of cute,” she added. “[But] we must have been really boring” for her to want to draw them.

Unlike many who attend council meetings, Talmon said she doesn’t necessarily have a chosen side on Costa Mesa politics.

“I am an issue and ethics person who feels happy and connected to this small piece of the world where I’ve lived my life,” Talmon said in a message. “I am on the side of human rights, compassion [and] equality, no matter who they are.”