Illustrator and cartoonist. Former editorial cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily News. Art with a brain behind it, not AI.
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Articles by David Willson
Advanced Apps By App Development Company Dubai -Dxb Apps
DXB APPS has proved an excellent app development company Dubai for Dubai app Development. Well-regarded in the industry for its highly customised solutions regarding mobile applications facilitating the growth of businesses, the company also does a lot in terms of developing solutions that satisfy business needs while driving exceptional user engagement and enhanced operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The Future of Web Development in India: Trends to Watch in 2025
AI-Powered Web Development: A Game Changer Artificial intelligence is significantly impacting web development in India. AI-driven tools streamline coding processes, enhance cybersecurity, and optimize user experience. Businesses that wish to stay competitive must hire a web developer in India with expertise in AI technologies. How AI is Revolutionizing Web Development AI is transforming the way websites are built and managed.
University Assignment Help Australia - High Grades Guaranteed
Are you struggling to complete your university assignments on time? Do you find yourself overwhelmed by tight deadlines, complex topics, and rigorous academic standards? If so, you are not alone. Thousands of students across Australia face similar challenges, making university assignment help services a valuable resource. Our expert academic assistance ensures well-researched, plagiarism-free, and high-quality assignments that guarantee top grades.
Sat test or Sat Exam - Preparation, Tips & Motivation
Introduction to the SAT The SAT test stands as a pivotal milestone in the journey toward higher education. For many students, it’s not just a standardized exam; it’s a defining moment that can shape their academic future. As college admissions become increasingly competitive, understanding the importance of this assessment is essential.
6 Books to Read for Fans of Richard Osman
in Books to Read if You Like..., eBook, Mystery, News, Thriller 6 Books to Read for Fans of Richard Osman For fans of Richard Osman’s mix of mystery and the unexpected twist, the search for similar reads ends here. We’ve handpicked six books that capture the essence of Osman’s storytelling – a combination of intrigue, wit, and unforgettable characters. Whether you’re after a new series or standalone gems, our list promises to keep you hooked.
$120,000 Banana Art by David Willson | Society6
A banana duct-taped to the wall at Art Basel, Miami in 2019 sold for $120,000. But I figured all the artist had done was set up a still life, and by painting it as an editorial cartoon, I was creating the real art … now available on Society6.
Singing Beast of Perelandra
"Treading delicately during one of the loudest bursts of music he at last saw through the flowery branches a black something." An illustration of the Singing Beast, CS Lewis, Perelandra
Rudolph’s Naughty List Cartoon
Spice up your Holiday accoutrements with a little naughty but nice Santa humor about Rudolph’s penchant for bad girls.
Santa's Helper Art by David Willson
This cartoon illustration that I originally did for a soap opera magazine offers a look behind the kitchen door of the perfect Holiday hostess.
FL - Coastal population continues to explode despite hurricanes
It’s not unusual for people to be shocked by the outcome of these storms. The 1935 Category 5 hurricane that destroyed a large part of Flagler’s overseas railroad in the Florida Keys also was called “The Storm of the Century.” So was the 1926 storm that caused a storm surge that overtopped Key Biscayne and pushed deep inland from Biscayne Bay. Miami was left in ruins and 113 people perished.
My Banana Republic Governor
Ron DeSantis is turning Florida into a Banana Republic where he is dictator. He likes to say he’s making Florida a free state. He even sells t-shirts and beer cozies that brag about it. Everyone is free to do that … right?
Cartoonistry: For those new to Palm Beach, Florida has seasons, if you know where to look
Years ago, after the population boom of the 1970s and ’80s, I used to hear a lot of complaints from newly-minted Palm Beach County residents that they missed the change of seasons they were used to up north. Many of those transplants either adapted to tropical life or moved back north within a couple of years, so I haven’t been hearing that complaint as much over the last few decades. However, with our new post-pandemic growth explosion, this once common lament might make a comeback.
Cartoonistry: As rude behavior escalates, it seems aliens have overtaken us
Have we reached peak obnoxiousness yet? I’m asking because it seems that people keep acting more entitled, angry, explosive and violent every day. The phenomenon reminds me of a Palm Beach Daily News cartoon I did in 2009, when the then-mayor of South Palm Beach, Martin Millar, started making headlines with some bizarre and belligerent public behavior. The town’s police chief at the time, Roger Crane, commented that it was like aliens had overtaken him.
Cartoonistry: This graphic designer doesn't regret 30 years at the Shiny Sheet
David Willson’s first Palm Beach Daily News cartoon, March 15, 1992. It’s hard for me to believe, but this week represented my 30th anniversary as the editorial cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily News. Even more unbelievable, I was my son’s age, 41 years old, when it all began. I was operating my own graphic design studio in Jupiter when the then-editor of the Shiny Sheet, Joyce Reingold, contacted me about providing cartoons for the paper’s newly-initiated weekly editorial page.
Cartoonistry: This graphic designer doesn't regret 30 years at the Shiny Sheet
It’s hard for me to believe, but this week represented my 30th anniversary as the editorial cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily News. Even more unbelievable, I was my son’s age, 41 years old, when it all began. I was operating my own graphic design studio in Jupiter when the then-editor of the Shiny Sheet, Joyce Reingold, contacted me about providing cartoons for the paper’s newly-initiated weekly editorial page.
Cartoonistry: Give female sea turtles some respect as they arrive on our beaches to answer Mother Nature's call
It’s March. And that means Palm Beachers must share the remaining part of the social season with other annual island visitors — sea turtles. The Palm Beach social season traditionally lasts until Easter. That means seven more weeks when many events, on or close to the beach, will coincide with nighttime nesting. But nesting and hatching continues through October. My March 18, 2015, Palm Beach Daily News editorial cartoon sums up the problem.
Cartoonistry: Relaxing in a tropical paradise like Palm Beach is not a breeze
- It’s February, that time of year when things really get cranking in Palm Beach. So, good luck getting that much needed rest, downtime or whatever relaxation you expected by coming here — unless maybe it’s with an icepack on your head. As my March 6, 2011, Palm Beach Daily News cartoon pointed out, if you’re the least bit concerned about the see-and-be-seen scene, the next several weeks will make or break you. Maybe both.
Cartoonistry: Relaxing in a tropical paradise like Palm Beach is not a breeze
It’s February, that time of year when things really get cranking in Palm Beach. So, good luck getting that much needed rest, downtime or whatever relaxation you expected by coming here — unless maybe it’s with an icepack on your head. As my March 6, 2011, Palm Beach Daily News cartoon pointed out, if you’re the least bit concerned about the see-and-be-seen scene, the next several weeks will make or break you. Maybe both.
Cartoonistry fodder: Iguanas running amok among us, free-falling from trees in cold snaps
When I first began cartooning for the Palm Beach Daily News, the severity of a winter cold snap in Florida was almost always measured by the amount of damage done to citrus crops. But times change and so have the number of orange groves remaining after the arrival of the incurable citrus greening disease from China in 2005. Florida’s citrus crop these days is only about 20% of what it was at its peak.
Cartoonistry: Gaslighting is blinding too many in our polarized country
- I ran across this tweet last week from venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan: “Suppose there is a principle. The principle is good, but the proponents are bad. While quoting it endlessly, they distort the principle beyond recognition. In response, the opposition now opposes the principle even in principle. What’s a good term for this common phenomenon?” I would call it a gaslighting feedback-loop.
Cartoonistry: Gaslighting is blinding too many in our polarized country
I ran across this tweet last week from venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan: “Suppose there is a principle. The principle is good, but the proponents are bad. While quoting it endlessly, they distort the principle beyond recognition. In response, the opposition now opposes the principle even in principle. What’s a good term for this common phenomenon?” I would call it a gaslighting feedback-loop.
Even GW Bush faced media's fixation on reporting 'controversy'
George W. Bush came to town for a presidential campaign fund-raiser and press conference at The Breakers in September of 2000. One of the key things he spoke about to the party faithful was a national health-care policy. Yes, George W. Bush had a health-care plan. It wasn’t the same as the Affordable Care Act, but it certainly was a refreshing idea from a Republican candidate. And it might have been a decade-earlier start in the right direction if anyone had cared enough to listen.
Even GW Bush faced media's fixation on reporting 'controversy'
George W. Bush came to town for a presidential campaign fund-raiser and press conference at The Breakers in September of 2000. One of the key things he spoke about to the party faithful was a national health-care policy. Yes, George W. Bush had a health-care plan. It wasn’t the same as the Affordable Care Act, but it certainly was a refreshing idea from a Republican candidate. And it might have been a decade-earlier start in the right direction if anyone had cared enough to listen.
Wall Street has recovered from the Great Recession, but Main Street remains left behind
I sometimes peruse past cartoons of mine published in the week between Christmas and New Year’s because they often summarize the year’s events and provide insights on where we’ve been and where we’re going. Given what happened on Jan. 6 of this year, the use of the word “insurgence” in my Dec. 30, 2007, cartoon stopped me in my tracks. The 2008 baby is giving the old man of 2007 an ear-full for being oblivious to everything he finds infuriating.
Cartoonistry: Avenging heroes are fitting only for the comics, not for real life
- There was a question that came to mind during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. “What would inspire a 17-year-old suburban boy, against all good sense, to grab an AR-15 and dangerously insert himself into violent unrest in a city miles away?” A cartoon of mine that ran in the Palm Beach Daily News in March 2018 might shed some light. It lampooned the juvenile rhetoric of President Trump, the gun lobby and the political right after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.
Cartoonistry: Avenging heroes are fitting only for the comics, not for real life
There was a question that came to mind during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. “What would inspire a 17-year-old suburban boy, against all good sense, to grab an AR-15 and dangerously insert himself into violent unrest in a city miles away?” A cartoon of mine that ran in the Palm Beach Daily News in March 2018 might shed some light. It lampooned the juvenile rhetoric of President Trump, the gun lobby and the political right after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.
Cartoonistry: How Palm Beach County was 'Disneyfied,' despite losing out to Orlando
There is a term that has emerged in the American lexicon to describe replicating the old with a newer and more fabulous version: "Disneyfication." I used this euphemism to describe what happened to the historic Four Winds estate in my Aug. 15, 2004, Palm Beach Daily News editorial cartoon, and it fit perfectly. October marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of Disney World in Orlando.
Has the word become too complacent, eschewing stability and resiliency?
“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” So said Col. Nathan Jessup from the witness stand in the movie ''A Few Good Men.'' I find myself wondering whether we all don’t deserve a similar dressing down — not from a raving narcissist such as Jessup, but from ourselves. So far, the nearly two-year history of this pandemic has been utterly confounding and more disruptive to our families and communities than many of us imagined. At this point, no American community has been left untouched.
Wall Art by David Willson
As an illustrator and longtime editorial cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily News, David Willson’s always unique artwork encompasses a variety of styles, from representational realism to whimsical fantasy and cartoons.
David Willson's Store
As an illustrator and longtime editorial cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily News, David Willson’s always unique artwork encompasses a variety of styles, from representational realism to whimsical fantasy and cartoons.
Cartoonistry: After Chauvin conviction, celebrating justice served and moving on is not an option
On Tuesday, former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of all three counts brought against him by the Minnesota attorney general for strangling George Floyd to death with a knee on his neck. There were cheers outside the courthouse, bittersweet tears among the victim’s family and a palpable sense of relief almost everywhere else. America had steeled itself for the all-too-likely alternative and more strife on its city streets.
A great-grandfather’s eye on pre-Flagler Palm Beach: George W. Potter carved out Figulus
Editor’s note: As the town marks its 110th anniversary Saturday, here is a look at the life of pioneer George W. Potter. It was the winter of 1873, and George W. Potter was a promising 20-year-old art and engineering student in Cincinnati. Unfortunately, he had chronic asthma. The damp cold and coal smoke from factories along the banks of the Ohio River kept him bedridden much of the winter. George’s 29-year-old brother, Dr. Richard B.
Trump wants credit for vaccines, but who deserves it?
Former president Donald Trump released a statement last week that said, “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!” Most people who follow the biotech and pharma industry will see through this revisionist posturing immediately.
Current real estate boom brings up memories of 2007, but there are differences
The pandemic year of 2020 has proven to be a banner year for Palm Beach real estate. No doubt you’ve noticed the many eye-popping real estate transactions in the Palm Beach Daily News over the last few weeks. Our real estate editor, Darrell Hofheinz, has been busier than the proverbial one-armed paper hanger. This deluge of deals brings to mind a Palm Beach Daily News editorial cartoon that was published on June 24, 2007, during an earlier island real estate boom.
Four Arts banyan was disassembled and re-created at Bellagio in Vegas
It was a week with Trump-related demolition stories peppering the news — both the helipad at Mar-a-Lago and the former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino building in Atlantic City. No, I’m not going to write about the ex-president today. But the conjoined subjects of demolition and casinos did a make an odd connection with my memory of another very unusual Palm Beach story.
Cartoonistry recalls cyclical bouts with naming of Trump Plaza in West Palm
Trouble has reared its head again for the Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach. After the Stop the Steal rally-turned-Capitol insurrection, residents have voted overwhelmingly to remove all association with the Trump name. But this isn’t the first time Trump’s name has been dropped from the marquee — or that residents have voted to restore it, for that matter. Donald Trump first got involved with the property when it was in deep financial trouble.
Last Tuesday, the pope publicly proclaimed that, while abortion is a sin, taking a vaccine created by using embryonic stem cells isn’t.
Last Tuesday, the pope publicly proclaimed that, while abortion is a sin, taking a vaccine created by using embryonic stem cells isn’t. The moral controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells has been long-running and often hobbled scientific research. My cartoon of Nov. 20, 2005, combined two different stories to illustrate the problem. A court ruling set back a planned biotech research incubator in Palm Beach County, while at the same time President George W.
Cartoonistry: A tough year of COVID comes with tough lessons
Well, 2020 has been one heck of a year — dramatically different and more disturbing than any in recent history. This time last year, most of us were barely aware that there was a coronavirus outbreak in China. Nor did we understand the level of death and destruction a global pandemic would bring. Today, it feels like the Earth has shifted under our feet. So let’s go back to my Dec. 8, 2019, Palm Beach Daily News cartoon and see what it can tell us about where we’ve come since then.
Island has had an aversion to having film crews shoot on the island
Palm Beachers have had a longtime aversion to their sumptuous island lifestyle winding up in photo spreads, travelogues and films. True, the social set seldom balk at assuming “the pose” for a bona-fide society photographer, but fashion photographers or television and film crews from across the bridges are required to apply for a town permit that has historically been summarily denied. Feature films have had to shoot “Palm Beach” scenes in Boca Raton and Miami. Travel features?
Dan Quayle criticism of Murphy Brown was early skirmish in culture war
Have you had nostalgic longings for a more genteel era? Who can blame you, when we are so incessantly bombarded with heedless anxiety-provoking drama from all sides. This is especially true for those of us who remember when there was still a relatively clear line drawn between television entertainment and journalism. My Palm Beach Daily News cartoon from Nov. 11, 1992, documents an early unraveling of this lost American ethos.
Cartoonistry column discusses prescience of December 2000 editorial cartoon
I suppose it’s presumptuous to refer to one’s own cartoon as “a classic,” but as I look back over my body of work, my Liti-gators cartoon of Dec. 3, 2000, has all the right elements. Its dynamic composition of flaming gators chasing fluttering ballots is loaded with visual humor, and it was a unique take on a millennium-defining political controversy. Most editorial cartoonists had joined the two political parties in pointing fingers at each other for trying to steal the election.
Letter: Does the U.S. really need a Surgeon General?
Why are the Surgeon General and the National Institute of Health allowed to make policies? Not everyone shares a wholesale belief in modern medicine. Some prefer dietary and lifestyle choices to prescription drugs. Some feel biochemists are more authoritative than doctors in many respects. These are philosophical choices that include competing scientific theories. Americans should be free to patronize services matching their philosophy.
Dear Donald: Every day is Thanksgiving for immigrants
David Willson Wednesday Sep 14, 2016 at 12:01 AM Sep 14, 2016 at 10:26 PM On this charitable American holiday weekend, Donald Trump’s continual disparaging assertions about various immigrant groups are an affront to many of our most ardent citizens. To be fair, because of his off-the-cuff style, Trump is sometimes the victim of "gotcha" journalism. But his opinions regarding immigration have become fairly clear.
Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots Book Preview
Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots, A 20-Year Palm Beach ‘Cartoonspective.’ by David Willson, Editorial Cartoonist for the Palm Beach Daily...
Opinion: Means to an end might mean the end of us
By David Willson, Special to the Daily News Sunday Feb 2, 2020 at 8:00 AM Are ethics situational? Can principles be relaxed under extenuating circumstances? Do the ends justify the means? As children, many of us were taught no. Absolute honesty and respect for others were drummed into us by parents and teachers in youth organizations, religious studies and classrooms.
Opinion: Don’t hold your breath for an easy water deal
By David Willson, Special to the Daily News Sunday Jan 19, 2020 at 8:01 AM The Town of Palm Beach is back to studying water supply options in preparation for the 2028 expiration of its agreement with West Palm Beach. Why start so early? Well, there’s plenty of historical precedence for a rough slog ahead. My Feb.
September 23, 2018 Editorial Cartoon
David Willson Sunday Sep 23, 2018 at 12:01 AM Oct 9, 2018 at 1:43 PM If you’re curious about the offbeat view of local history my past editorial cartoons offer, why not check out my 20-year retrospective book, Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots, a 20-Year ‘Cartoonspective’ currently on sale, along with original cartoons and prints, at PalmBeachCartoons.com?
September 30, 2018 Editorial Cartoon
David Willson Sunday Sep 30, 2018 at 12:01 AM Oct 9, 2018 at 1:42 PM If you’re curious about the offbeat view of local history my past editorial cartoons offer, why not check out my 20-year retrospective book, Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots, a 20-Year ‘Cartoonspective’ currently on sale, along with original cartoons and prints, at PalmBeachCartoons.com?
September 9, 2018 Editorial Cartoon
David Willson Sunday Sep 9, 2018 at 12:01 AM Oct 9, 2018 at 1:45 PM If you’re curious about the offbeat view of local history my past editorial cartoons offer, why not check out my 20-year retrospective book, Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots, a 20-Year ‘Cartoonspective’ currently on sale, along with original cartoons and prints, at PalmBeachCartoons.com?
September 16, 2018 Editorial Cartoon
David Willson Sunday Sep 16, 2018 at 12:01 AM Oct 9, 2018 at 1:45 PM If you’re curious about the offbeat view of local history my past editorial cartoons offer, why not check out my 20-year retrospective book, Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots, a 20-Year ‘Cartoonspective’ currently on sale, along with original cartoons and prints, at PalmBeachCartoons.com?
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