Explained, "Joey's Book"

Joey's Book is the final book in my three-part Books Of The Art project. If you haven't guessed or come across the info by now, you should know that I'm Joey. That's me and that's my name, nice to meet ya. ;)

Joey's Book (by the way, it feels kinda weird... and by "weird" I actually mean "douchey" to be referring to myself in the third person. :P Technically I'm not... I'm not referring to the book per se, but the title of said book. :P ) is also known as The Black Book. Like the other two books... my book's color has a direct superificial link, my book happens to be a full-size Moleskine sketch book... which is black. I have to say that I don't have any true loyalty to one type of book over any other... obviously. But I imagine I might stick to the Moleskine books in the future if only because of their interesting history with artisans of all kinds. That's immensely appealing. Maybe more appealing is the huge geek-cachet they carry within the geek/tech/web community. :P More than all of that though, I find the Moleskine books to be absolutely luxurious. But I've gone on about Moleskine before... so I'll spare you that rant. ;)

Funny enough, I recently watched Rob Zombie's remake of the classic Halloween and in it Dr. Loomis has this great little dialogue with the young Michael Myers about black's status, or lack thereof, as a color. It's a rant I've heard before (which I find somewhat annoying by the way. :P ;) ) and was actually one of the many reasons I decided to choose that color for my book. Although, the main reason I chose black is because it's so closely tied to the North. Traditionally, in a symbolic context, the North is representative of the dark... of dark energy. It's the Abyss... it's The Unconscious. It's a place of terror and personal discovery. A crossroads. The ultimate destination of The Hero.

This reference to the unconscious, however, was the main factor in my decision to choose black. The Jet North is a place of dream. I've actually mentioned The Black Book before on this blog, but by a third name... The Dream Journal.

There were so many reasons why this final book would be my own. A mixture of thoughtful design and divine serendipity. In some ways it was only by chance that my book would be the third in the series... but it wasn't by chance that I would link each book between myself and my brothers. What's interesting is how that linkage arranged itself. The first book, David's Book, is my oldest brother's book... who just so happens to be the first-born. The second book, Jerry's Book, was the second-born. And finally, I the third-born. The number three... and it's connection to me and my life is, in many ways, a profound one. Ways in which I don't know if I'll be able to fully explain, and if I could... if I should. It's curious though that it managed to appear in this fashion. That my book would be the third book. It has all the marking of the personal. Which is so apt. And why there is a reference to the Hero mythos in my decision to choose black. There's this reference to The Hero's Journey... and the left-hand path of the artist.

But more than anything, the book is tied to the idea of dream. Especially since my entire focus for the book is to document my dreams in visual form. David's Book is of fire, Jerry's of earth and mine of water. Water being another reference to dream... to the dream sea... the collective unconscious. Everything in my book is meant to be a mixture of philosophies from the previous books. At once, wild and tamed. Always in a state of flux... in between states. Not quite hot... not quite cool... not quite spontaneous and not quite planned. In my mind I imagine mist... steam. Water that's not quite itself... in transition... at it's most mutable. Smoke. Again tied to the idea of the dark... of the unconscious. I see smoke and images arising from the dark. I try to pin them down as they are... but I don't come close. My dreams come and go as they please... offering hints... and I do my best to hold onto them. I'm on the path of the beast... searching and hunting.

Another remarkable thing about my book is that I've decided to forgo my use of ink. More than that, I've decided to experiment with color. I don't know why... but it seemed appropriate. My drawings... the way they appear to me in my waking life, and the way I choose to render them... the rendering always falls short. I don't know that I've the talent... nor does there exist the medium to render them as I would like. My dreams are an even more elusive animal. There's no way I could... hold them the way I would like. So to help alleviate the situation... I thought I would use color as another point of reference, or elaboration. I try to imagine... an image being a word or phrase... and rendering them properly means being limited both by time and by vocabulary... but my decision to use color, is like adding voices to the choir. Maybe using color would help me to... get more out than is normally possible. But I don't know... it's an experiment. ;)

Anyway, that's my book... funny enough, I could still go more in depth about it... but I'm sure you've had your fill. ;) I haven't yet completed a single piece in The Black Book... which I suppose is due to a mixture of fear and a tiny bit of perfectionism rearing it's ugly little head. I haven't worked with color... so I'm worried about mucking things up; not expressing myself the way I would like. I want things to be perfect... and this uneasiness I'm feeling almost assures I'm going to fuck up, so I've just stalled. But I don't suppose that'll last long... I'll get to it quickly enough. This blog, oddly enough, I feel is helping that process along. I want to update this blog fairly regularly with pieces of my work... and if I'm coming close to having nothing to post, well that should light a fire under me to get things done. It's two sides of my OCD mind fighting against one another. :P I have a plan to post regularly which I won't let get interrupted... and I also don't want to create anything I'm horribly unhappy with... neither of these things are going to change, which just means I'm going to have to find a way to work more quickly and efficiently. I gotta operate in Hero mode... walk without fear. ;)

DS333, fearless.