Of journal-keeping, funny pages and graphic novels

She is Pele, as I drew her in my journal after a group journey through the chakras I led during my recent Hawaii retreat. While drumming for the circle, I found Pele giving birth to the islands while her fiery body streamed and coiled.

    I am forever drawing in my journal, the one I write in by hand. The boy artist in me enjoys this activity, and it makes the pages fun to examine when I get round to reading the records I have made. Sometimes the drawings are keys that help me to decipher the befuddling shorthand and hieratic scratches of my impossible handwriting.

   Often a series of little sketches look like the funny pages, or even part of a graphic novel. I might depict several acts of a dream or shamanic journey in panels, or on successive pages.