When I was a little kid, I decided that I wanted to write and illustrate my own books for children. So I began by writing a 66-chapter book, "The Troublesome Triplets" and illustrated it myself. 24 of the chapters, which could each stand alone as a short story, were published in a Girl Scouts magazine, 3 stories per issue, for a year. That was a big deal for me as a kid. Then of course as I grew up there were many distractions and the whole idea of getting a "real" job kept getting pounded into my brain, so my dream of being an author/illustrator sort of lost its way.
But I thought of it again as I started working on this page in my art journal last night. I was hearing a story unfurling in my brain as I worked on this, even though I had no intention of creating a story, just doodling while listening to a podcast of an artist interview on my headphones late at night.
This scene is sort of sad, of course, so I'd want to make a sequel, a happy ending to this dire situation. Maybe I will. Or maybe it's an analogy of something going on in my life right now, and i need to wait for some things to happen in my own personal journey before the ending of this mermaid story becomes clear, too.
So there it is. Maybe I'll come back to this another time, maybe not. What's very satisfying to me is just how good it feels to let art draw out those thoughts and dreams inside of you that you might not ever share with anyone or even be able to find the words for in an actual spoken language. It's just a feeling, a feeling that can only be expressed through art, either by images seen, or music heard. It's your heartsong. Let it play!
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