Tanda Impostors to P Q

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Seeking the unconscious can be mind numbing. Just when you think you've arrived, con men trickle out of the forest to pimp the impostors. Later you realize these interpretations are only ways to affirm that sanity exists ... somewhere.

If one expects reason to prevail during ink therapy doodling sessions ...  hahahahaha!

This doodle makes me think about the many good things that come out of nowhere. Of course those good things are hidden in symbols that my affectionate readers can only guess at. So please go ahead and interpret the rest of these ink therapy doodles for yourself. The best story wins a free print.

Equilibrium Means Temporary

All of my inquiries into Oriental philosophy have informed me that CHANGE is at the Center of the Universe. 

I recall a similar physical science maxim: Equilibrium is a temporary stage in the life process of a river. Of course, I know that because I have drawn many profiles of a river’s life.

Here are another few profiles … 

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The Wader

Don't worry, Tanda. The wader has your bill.

Tanda’s links to the unconscious mind are being courted, it seems. It’s transparent that the wader must love to pay the bill for change.

Batman’s Guano

Batman’s guano sofas made Tanda sleepy

It seems there exists two kinds of wisdom in the world and one kind is bat wisdom. That is why humor is the only Virtue one must defend to the death. 

Sous-chef Tanda

The subconscious mind does not have to worry. That’s the rooster’s job. This should clarify the blending for a peaceful mind.

pax vosbiscum

Conflict Resolved

The other day I had the great, good fortune to sit down with Carl Jung’s Red Book for a few minutes. Within three or four pages I came across the description of Carl’s latter years during which he forsook directed thinking to explore the fantasies of the unconscious mind. 

Carl took the same intended journey that occupies my drawing labors, but over a hundred years earlier than I. Jung’s drawings are in color, while mine favor the black ink of an old map maker. Jung’s drawings tend to be geometrical and iconic. My drawings erupt from the who-knows-where with surprises for my startled eyes.

Old conflicts resolved, some clarity appears on the page ... for the moment. Tanda Shadowself’s inky blackness drains into a gravy boat crucible where it awaits further transformations, while my bloody fingerprints give texture to the leafy tops of skinny trees. 

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Tanda's Ink. My Blood.

I never know where an ink drawing will start. If I can’t find an area to begin doodling, I might pour an ink wash onto the paper, then start looking for shapes to extend.

Like Jung pointed out, I’ve noticed my thinking switching back-and-forth between directed and associative or imagistic thinking. I am aiming to convene with my unconscious mind while drawing. This kind of drawing feels like a dance for equilibrium. 

Ink Therapy Resurrects Old Friends

My hope is that Ink Therapy saves us from this crazy, greedy, violent world. And that's just as good a reason as any to spend hours doodling with black ink on white paper.

My second inking session (Doubting Tanda) started at the top of the page with a series of short, parallel lines that eventually turned into a wooley creature with a noble probiscus. How do these things happen? Do these wooly creatures inhabit my brain? yours?

Grab a pen and paper and start doodling. Just make marks. Lines, circles, chevrons, dots, whatever feels good. Don't think too much. My ink therapy is not an activity that depends on plans or forethought or ego. Just the opposite; I simply doodle until the pen starts moving by itself.

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Before long a formally attired, pen-headed character and his strange dog-like buddy appear at the bottom of the page. Nothing too intimidating for a 70 year old inkster with viagra in his pocket, however. 

The pen-headed character is Tanda, an old friend from previous ink therapy sessions. Tanda always shows up with weird baggage; that’s his nature. Tanda is my psychological Shadow; his full name: Tanda Lobit Shadowself. He's here to amuse me.

But Tanda's first appearance was one of uncertainty on the page. He was dubiously amused when he showed me how he's changed during the past 16 years. He had been resting in a near visible sofa world waiting to make a reappearance in india ink. 

I told him he looks like a full professor on his way to a brandy sniffing party.