Bob Diven, Sun-News editorial cartoonist, is calling it a career. What's next?

For nearly two decades, Las Cruces Sun-News subscribers enjoyed flipping to the political cartoon in the Sunday print edition and seeing what event in the past week artist Bob Diven decided to satirize.

After 17 years putting ink to paper, Diven decided it was time to cap his pen.

Bob Diven, Las Cruces Renaissance man

Diven is a local artist who over the years has become entrenched with the very culture of Las Cruces. Every day, people pass by his murals, paintings and logos.

He is the man behind the barn flag mural painted on an adobe barn in Mesilla, the guitar mural over Hubbard’s Music and the recent restoration of the Mesilla mural depicting New Mexico’s infamous Billy the Kid at the entrance of the Billy the Kid Gift Shop.

Diven has painted numerous portraits. He spent Saturday mornings drawing chalk murals during the Las Cruces Farmer’s and Crafts Market. He was the Rat Catcher during the Renaissance ArtsFaire and the maker of the faire’s Magellan the Dragon who appeared in Young Park’s pond every November.

But his most steady work has been the appearance of his trademark rabbits telling the story of Las Cruces’ ups and downs in a printed square once a week.

“I felt like I was the right person at the time to kind of speak up for the community,” Diven said.

Finding his way as an artist

Diven moved to Las Cruces with his family when he was 5 years old.

“It was supposed to be a sabbatical (for my dad) but we stayed,” Diven said.

He graduated from Las Cruces High School and attended New Mexico State University for a year to figure out just what career he wanted to pursue. While at NMSU, he drew editorial cartoons for The Round Up student newspaper.

He said he aspired to become a filmmaker but also had fine arts and vocal singing talent. His options were many, but Diven said he didn’t know which avenue to follow.

He wound up joining the U.S. Coast Guard.

Diven was sent to San Francisco where he happened to meet Chet Paulson, a Washington D.C. commercial artist. He took a look at samples of Diven’s work and encouraged him to find an art school that taught figure drawing and anatomy.

Off Diven went to an art school in Denver where he learned the “visual language.” He then returned to New Mexico.

His work has varied over the years but includes partnering with various local businesses as an illustrator, working as an art director for the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, graphic designing for an advertising agency and working as an art director for a publishing company.

“I just learned on the job,” he said.

He volunteered in Europe as a graphic designer for a time before making his way back to Las Cruces once again.

“That's when I really began to paint,” Diven said. “And then it's just been this series of sort of taking all these natural talents I was born with and, one after the other, kind of running them to the ground. Kind of exploring what they were and then building them into abilities."

His Renaissance man reputation led him to such experiences as working with Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Meddoff on set designing and playwriting.

But one area he was interested in — cartoons — was still out of reach. He said the newspaper wasn’t interested when he first returned from art school.

“One day I was dropping off an illustration (at the newspaper) someone hired me to do for a Christmas ad special and (Jim Lawitz) asked me if I was interested to do a Sunday cartoon, and I was thrilled to say yes,” he said.

Diven’s first political cartoon appeared in the Sun-News in January 2006 and nearly every Sunday following up to the summer of 2023.

‘Living in Las Cruces’ editorial cartoons

Once a week for 17 years, Diven graced the inside page of the Sun-News with a witty take on that week’s goings-on in Las Cruces. From the change of the weather to the actions of elected officials, people could count on Diven’s cartoon rabbit having an opinion to share.

“It was a challenge every week to find the subject. Some weeks were harder than others. Some were easy. Sometimes cartoons were fun, about things everyone can relate to,” Diven said. “What I didn't like about it is sort of like being on jury duty. When I was a juror once, it was very uncomfortable to sit in judgment of other people ... I'm a sensitive guy and it's hard to (realize) that if you take a stand or have a point of view, necessarily, somebody is not going to like it.”

Diven said he decided to step away from the cartoon for several reasons — weariness of the “freelance art hustle,” physical tiredness and the development of carpal tunnel in his wrist, the increased difficulty of not repeating cartoons and the shrinking of local news coverage.

“When I started doing the cartoons, people would tell me ideas or want me to do national things on it,” he said. “No, I'm the cartoonist for the Las Cruces Sun-News. I can only deal with subjects that the readers of the paper see, so my fuel is what's in the paper.”

Diven's last cartoon appeared in the Aug. 20 print edition.

For now, Diven said he does not have plans for the next chapter of his artistic life, but rest is essential. He explained that he is working on treating his carpal tunnel and recently dove into a new hobby of repairing typewriters.

“I think I just have to give myself some time to sort of decompress and recover from being an artist for 40-some years,” Diven said.

While he recoups and explores, Diven added he enjoys hearing from viewers of his work via mail. He can be reached at P.O. Box 2781 Las Cruces, NM 88004.

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on X, formerly Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Editorial cartoonist Bob Diven parts with Sun-News after 17 years