The Palm Is Looking for a Caricature Artist to Employ

A downtown steakhouse adorned with caricatures and cartoons is looking to add to its art collection. The Palm is hosting a 'Face Off' this month, seeking a resident artist to complete six to 12 new drawings on its walls, The Dig reports.

Artists are encouraged to send a headshot portrait of Governor Charlie Baker by September 30 to faceoff@thepalm.com. The Dig's creative director, Tak Toyoshima — who draws and writes the comic Secret Asian Man on the side — will narrow the submissions down to five. Those five artists will then compete in a "draw-off" at the restaurant, with the winner signing on as a resident artist.

The Palm general manager Brian Brosnihan said the artist will be asked to sketch and paint a portrait directly onto the wall on Saturdays or Sundays, either before the restaurant opens or during the lunch shift. The artist will be paid $65 per portrait.

The tradition of caricatures on the walls of The Palm goes back 90 years, to the family-owned steakhouse chain's original location on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. That location was in close proximity to the King Features Syndicate and welcomed a lot of cartoonists — who sometimes paid their tabs in original artwork. As The Palm expanded across the country and the world, it became a tradition for a new restaurant to be painted with 200 - 300 local likenesses to start, with new portraits added regularly.

Sadly, the classic, 25-seat hole-in-the-wall in New York City closed last month, and its cartoon-covered walls were not preserved.

Don't let that happen in Boston. Send in your best Baker.