Lately, I've become aware that I spend most of my creative time observing, but very little of it imagining. That bothers me a lot. I want to be an artist so that I can play make-believe instead of living regular life. But instead, I just copy from my life. That's not a big deal, that's an important part of being an artist. But I don't want it to be the ONLY part of being an artist. So, I'm going back to an old favorite of mine, Lynda Barry. She is one of my favorite cartoonist's (Sergio Aragonés being neck and neck for #1) and she celebrates mining our memories to get the ball rolling on writing creative, original work. Sergio is the opposite, that guy is a font for comedy and make-believe. I am looking for a way to marry the two, mining my own psyche and subconscious for lively, interesting make-believe work.
Here are a few exercises I did to start the ball rolling:
Here I am floating in my tin can.
1. I dreamt of space travel as a kid (I still do) and with incredible regularity I would dumpster dive the appliance-shipper a block from our house and drag home Saturn rockets that were disguised as cardboard boxes. I always dreamt of having a fishbowl for a helmet. My parents always dreamt I wouldn’t abandon my homemade rockets in the rain. There was a LOT of dreaming as a kid. This scares me, I dream less as an adult than I did as a child, but I dream even less as a middle-aged adult than I did as one in my 20s and 30s.
That was a close one!
2. I watched part of #daysofthunder (Kidman and Cruise 1990) and marveled how Cole Trickle (what a GREAT name) overcame his psychological block by driving through a cloud of smoke. Cinematic smile and uptempo music tell you, ‘he’s gonna be alright!’ Maybe that would work for other emotional scars?! Think of all of the therapists out there that would need to move their offices to pop-up tents at regional nascar tracks! X-D
Did you know John C Riley was in this?!? I guess he was cutting his teeth for when he would later race against Ricky Bobby! In fact, this makes me think, I am sure Taledega Nights (2006) was a parody of Days of Thunder (in spite of Wikipedia stating it was based on a true story), but it was so long after DoT that popular culture had largely forgotten about Cruise and Kidman's nascar effort... today it's little more than a footnote for the meme-factory generation.
Snoopy's adventure was the real draw
3. On Halloween as a kid, never dressed up... at least not like most people. I wore a tie and I’ll-fitting jackets acquired second-hand. We didn’t celebrate the holiday (I still don’t) but I will admit, Halloween had an appeal to a kid. Costumes and candy? No wonder people climb into weird white vans. But every year, the Thursday on or before Halloween, CBS aired ‘Its The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!’ At 7:00. We had a meeting every Thursday at 7:30 so I would be dressed and ready to go at 6:45 and soak in every second before mom said ‘let’s go!’ She deserves credit for staying on course because none of us would have minded a ‘we’ll go next week'.
In truth, I used to resent missing some of those things as a kid, but in hind site, I appreciate the scarcity, the desire. I was told I wasn't missing out in spite of feeling like I was. I was a good kid, I listened patiently and went with the flow only to learn many many years later that in fact, they were right. I am a happy, centered adult thrilled to have skipped the ballyhoo that the vast majority of children embrace. It feels good to be an outsider on some things. It definitely helped with the fact that every young person feels like an outsider, I was just an actual card-carrying weirdo.
I will cut you... or maybe I'm just hungry
4. Haunting. One of the drawing prompts was to draw ourselves as someone who haunts a place. I take very seriously spirits and the evil side of things. It’s no joke, i feel like if I leave the demons alone, they’ll mostly leave me be! BUT, there are other ways to haunt a place than as a spirit creature... here I am a disheveled hobo eyeballing you for a handout.
As I wrote this, I hesitated for a minute to mention spirituality and my opinion about the demons and the spiritual realm, 'people will think I'm a bible-thumping weirdo' (which I am) but it occurred to me that I know a LOT of artists to carry on at to no end about the mysteries of the spiritual. Auras, supernatural experiences, the unknowable god. No one thinks twice, why should I. I'm not crazy about the idea of being categorized with the millions of nominal christians in the world, but I have to celebrate my love for the bigger picture in the universe and creation, the spirit realm might not be evident in everyday life, but it's no mystery to be feared and it's no joke to be taken lightly.
8min 3x5 notecards pen and ink + watercolor #artofmiggy #sketchbook #lyndabarry #nearsightedmonkey #homeless #hobotimes #heybuddycanyouspareadime #charliebrown #charlesshultz #greatpumpkin #billmelendez #snoopy #nearsightedmonkey #tomcruise #nicolekidman #nascar #johncriley #stockcar #taledeganights #rickybobby #artofmiggy #sketchbook#lyndabarry #nearsightedmonkey #nasa#moonshot #elonmusk #cardboarddreams
Copying a frame from a Fliesher cartoon
Lynda Barry's syllabus for creative writing
Lynda Barry
Lynda Barry