Sweater Vests

This week, I came across a political cartoon designed by Joe Heller, of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. This cartoon displays the new republican presidential candidate Rick santorum sporting one of his most famous sweater vests at one of his public events. It is interesting that this candidate of the 2012 presidential election has already acquired a means of being made fun of by the press. It seems that his sweater vests have become more well known then him at this current time. Not to mention it is brought up in a satirical/joking mattern.
The first caption on this cartoon reads, "Ever wonder what happens to the sleeves from Rick Santorum's sweater vests?" When the viewer proceeds to the second panel one sees, the elephant, that is known as the republican symbol with sleeves stuffed in his ear. The speech bubble reads, "I don't want to hear it. What I found most interesting in this cartoon was, Mr. Santorum is the Republican candidate and the symbolic elephant doesn't even want to listen to him. Wouldn't this give off a negative reaction from the voters if other Republicans don't even want to listen to him? So not only is he already being made fun of but, it seems that his own people dont believe in his beliefs. At least that's how I see it.
More so, it is interesting how relative this and all other political cartoons are to Messerschmidt's reading, Contemporary Art. In this reading, Xaver Messerschmidt talks about how the face is the way into a person's soul. That you can tell a lot about a person just by seeing their face. He goes on to create art work in which he calls the character heads, to show expression and emotion and how you understand so much just by one glance.
I felt this was so related because, when making a caricature an artist rely's so much on the facial features of the model sitting before them. Yes, they can incorporate other features into them as well like Santorum's sweater vests but, without a likeness, people who aren't in tune with the news would never know who was being portrayed in these cartoons. Facial features are so important to this kind of art. Each must be carefully considered and carefully crafted