Magic Realism Graphic Novels
These drawings and stories are part of a graphic novel I am working on. It is a collection of illustrated short stories, oral traditions, dreams, visions, and my own real-life memories. In a Native American tradition, I am following a vision, a sign given to me to do this project. I will write a story and illustrate it, or I will start with an ink drawing and then write the story. I keep a sketchbook near my bed, and I also would sketch a doodle if I had a fresh dream. I have memories or visions before I fall asleep or before I wake up and I will draw these images or stories in a sketchbook. They are the hypnagogic state of consciousness during wakefulness into sleep. And the hypnopompic[1] state is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep.
I also meditate and induce myself to open visualization. I was taught this ancient strategy by a shaman, Paco in Madre de Dios, southern Amazon, Peru in 1971. According to Paco all human beings had this power until formal education appeared and this erased the practice of visualization because religion and formal education were prohibited. They considered devilish, satanic, and dealing with idolatry. In real life is like inducing several daydream-like visions and later drawing them.
The word association exercises for psychoanalysis used by Freud and Jung are also very successful for me. I draw archetypes from the collective unconscious or try to remember childhood oral traditions or simple memories.
After I make an ink drawing, I write the story the same way. Using InDesign I place the scanned pen and ink drawing together with the story, on facing pages, to get a prototype of a finished book.
[1] Ghibellini, Romain. Meier, Beat. The hypnagogic state: A brief update. Wiley Online Library. 2022
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsr.13719
