Book: Inkling

I have finally got together some ink brush work I did using my non-dominant hand, which for me is my left. This book includes poetry as well as the pictures I did in 2009, while trying to recover my brains after heavy doses of psychiatric drugs.
http://www.amazon.com/Inkling-Initially-NO/dp/1479392243

Fallen tree

Protests are a scary thing, you need more of your mind working. Need to be able to see from both sides. When I get a vibe from around me that something ain't quite right, I check, words? And if there's none, it's a picture, but if my right hand holds only abstractions, I now am using the left and it doesn't seem to be as sloppy as it used to be.

Finding outlines

I was in a bar waiting for an open mic poetry session to begin, feeling the need to express images. It's hard to explain, that feeling. But it's as annoying to not draw as it is to not go to the toilet. However, the pictures were not in my right hand, so I tried my left and got this one.

I inked this one while at my studio. Loving using the left hand. I included this one because it's no good. The left hand work in this was just provoking anger and frustration and a mess of doodles on the page. Clarity all awry. Changed to the right hand after this and created over 10 clear images quite happily.Then I went back to the left a few days later and did this one.

These images are created in the moment, I do not preconcieve what they will be. It's like the vision part of the brain that is very active while sleeping has a pathway to express what I don't even think I'm thinking about. It's like there are parallels and tangents and then little things going on in the mind that have seemingly nothing to do with what I'm thinking about. Perhaps there is a vague connection somewhere, but I have not been near a paddock for a long time. Maybe it was the lack of milk in the fridge. It could be as vague as that.

Mermaid with Jellyfish

Sometimes I really feel the need to express visually, but my right hand is trapped in, 'It's all not good enough' mode. By using my left hand I find ideas, because I think anything to do with the left is a shakier draw and not as slick as the right and therefore doesn't matter much. So, it's not going to be good enough anyway. But then I find images coming out automatically. The right brain sometimes has a pressing need to speak visually through my art.

I had a headache on the right side of the head. Painting with my left hand didn't cure it, but seemed to ease the interfering feeling.