The Dreambook Drawings

I began this book haphazardly, and slowly.  But when I began my new job working with people in deep crisis, I found the major body of the group --- the black and whites, done with no pencils, no pre-drawing or conception (except in the case of the owl, one of which I had to abort and convert into the preceding drawing, "Owl City On Fire," in which careful viewers can find the wreckage of my first, unsatisfying owl), and no white media of any kind to clean up --- basically tattooing the paper with no guidelines.

And I admit I'm pleased with the results. These drawings tell me things about myself which I will not be able to articulate more conventionally for many years, I think.  Some are simple --- Fukashima, Mt. St. Helens, disasters are clearly on my mind... but together they point to a story I know is there.  But a story, as I tell many of the people I work with, has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  And if you don't know the end, it's not a story, it's a journey.  Our clients use these as coloring pages, one of the most meditative secular acts one can engage in.  They always ask for new ones, and more. I'm proud I could take part in making something that stays alive as long as it's being used: A funky coloring book. Except it's not a story; stories have ends.  So these pictures are really still a journey. Hope you enjoy the trip; please send a card!