Rhonda Dicksion

In the early 1990s, a freelance author named Rhonda Dicksion entered the scene as a queer cartoonist. She published multiple lesbian-focused cartoons in a turbulent time for the lesbian community that were considered lighthearted, joyful, and normalizing lesbian as well as interracial relationships. She contributed to multiple LGBTQ+ journals and anthologies. She additionally published her own cartooning books and comics with Naiad press. Later in life, Dicksion went into the Fine Arts sector and pioneered many new techniques in the colored pencil art industry.

Biography Rhonda Dicksion was born in Los Angeles to "patient and understanding" parents. She started painting and drawing since she had a nursery. She now lives in rural Monroe, WA where she had resided with her partner Krysta Gibson and their corgis since 1981.

Career

1990s Before her time as a cartoonist, Rhonda Dicksion worked "drawing" for various newspapers. She claims that what got her started working The Lesbian Survival Manual came a year prior to publishing. Her inspiration came in 1989 when she saw a cartoon-idea submission contest in The Lesbian Contradiction, a journal for "irreverent feminism". She later submitted six cartoons, four of which were published, one of which was put on the cover of issue number 26. issue 28, page 2, and issue 29 pages 3, 7, 9, and 12. Dicksion's work also shows up in issues 30-48 of The Lesbian Contradiction. Her style was described as different from many cartoonists due to her lack of characters. In most of her cartoons, Dicksion said that the caricatures were "not characters" but different for every scenario to retain relatability. She also claims to be less of a story teller and more of a "graphic artist". Later, on October 1, 1993, Dicksion published Stay Tooned, also with Naiad Press Publishing Inc, a collection of comics portraying lesbian relationships. On the back of the book, Rhonda is referred to as "one of the sharpest funniest observers of the lesbian scene". She also contributed to Dyke Strippers: Lesbian Cartoonists from A-Z, an anthology for lesbian cartoonists to share their work in a collected work.

In an interview with Tsuga Fine Art, Dicksion describes her working on cartooning as the help she needed to find her identity as a queer person and author as well as develop her work ethic and skills for later in life when she entered the fine arts business, To Dicksion, the queer community is a group "all together and all moving forward". Creating comics was her "own way of helping the group move forward" as well as just "making people laugh". Rhonda continues to encourage young people and especially young queer people to get into art to express themselves and to realize that the barriers to entry are not as scary as they seem.

Recognition

Honors and memberships

Arizona Artist's Guild Member Colored Pencil Society UK Member

Rhonda Dicksion has been an active member of the Colored Pencil Society of America since 2018. a colored pencil art show. One of her works titled Still Life With Harvey won second place at the Edmonds Art Festival in 2019 and another titled Wanderlust won first place.