Fast-draw artist has last year at Yuma fair

  Tom "Huf" Hofstedt has been drawing wacky caricatures of Yuma County Fair-goers for 25 years, and this will be his last.

  Hofstedt has been coming to Yuma since the mid-1980s to set up shop in the Commercial Building in the same location every year near the north door.

   This "Fastest Pen in the World" can currently draw more than 40 caricatures per hour; which is no small feat.

  "I started coming to Yuma in ’85, when I was doing the southern part of my national tour," said Hofstedt. "I finally connected with Yuma and it was the best of the bunch. I have had the same booth location in the Commercial Building every year since. It could not be better because I am right next to the cinnamon roll booth."

  Some Yumans have been getting the mugs drawn by Hofstedt over and over again as a matter of tradition.

  "I have had several repeat customers through the years. I did people as children who are coming back with their children."

  "My family has been doing this with Tom every year for years," said Mario Garcia, who brings his three children for caricatures. "The art he does shows my kids growing up through the years, and it is a fun deal. Now they may become collectors items."

  Hofstedt said the first day at the fair is always extremely busy since it is dollar day. "I will start and not be able to stop again for a long time."

  Hofstedt said he loves coming to Yuma to work but also to play a few rounds of golf and to sink some pool balls at local venues. He said the reason he won't be coming back is simply because the years are catching up on him.

  "I am 73 years old, and it is a 1,500- mile drive from my home in Tacoma, Wash. I leave on Thursday and don't get here until Monday. At my age you should not be driving that far; it just takes too much out of me.

  "I would have quit two years ago, but I decided to stay on so I could retire with Yuma County Fair general manager Kelly Watkins. I am not completely retiring from drawing, I am just going to stay closer to home."

  Hofstedt started drawing portraits in elementary school and, after encouragement from his teachers, began to take drawing very seriously.

  "I started drawing as a kid. There was no TV, so I listened to the radio and drew. My favorite comic books were Superman and Batman; and back then, the classic comics were about classic stories like King Arthur. I drew tanks and airplanes during World War II.

  "I realized I could get likenesses of other people when I was 10, and my father sat and let me draw him many times so I could practice. By high school I was making a lot of my spending money drawing my classmates.

  "The first time I was ever paid for drawing was at a church bazaar in 1951. The amount of money I earned drawing there was the equivalent an adult earned from a full day's wages."

  Hofstedt said the jobs he had after high school were directly related to his artistic talents.

  "I was actually fired from one of my jobs for working too quickly while stenciling letters. The foreman said I was making everyone look bad, which was bad for morale in the shop.

  "After that I answered an ad to draw face portraits at the World's Fair in Seattle in 1962. I went to work as a pastel profile artist but switched to drawing caricatures because there was such a demand for them.

  "After the World's Fair, I moved to Southern California and got a job at a sign shop. While I was working there, I got a call from one of my friends I had met in Seattle. He was working at Disneyland, and I went to work for him."

  At Disneyland he earned one third of the $1 paid for each caricature he drew.

  "This was really training under fire because there was no end to the line of people wanting the $1 caricature. That was when I started setting records. In one seven-hour shift, I drew 568 pictures. That is an average of 40 seconds per picture. That is how I got the name 'Fastest Pen in the World.'"

  Hofstedt said the fair in Yuma has stayed true to its rural roots.

  "After that I traveled around doing several fairs. On a day-by-day basis, the Yuma fair is the best of all of them. It has a good attendance and feels more like an old-time fair. It is not just another shopping mall. Everything is balanced here."

  To see Hofstedt in action or to get a caricature done up for yourself, go to the Commercial Building and head to the north east corner of the building.

  Caricatures are $7 each.

  For more information about Hofstedt, log on to www.TomHuf.com.

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