Art is the microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to us all.
Leo Tolstoy
This quote was on the nightstand in the room that I was in while creating the majority of this book. I never expected to write a children’s book. I don’t have any children of my own, and at this point in my life do not expect to. This story occurred to me somewhat spontaneously. A little inspiration at first, but once I put my pen to paper the story unfolded naturally and without much effort. It was structured very close to it’s final format within an hour.
Once the bare bones of the story were in place I began sketching images to go with it. These too seemed to flow onto the paper as if being guided. The images took more time to create though. I work a regular full time job and like many artists have multiple projects going on at once. Over the course of the course of the years I worked on this, there were times when I forgot about the project entirely.
In late 2019 I lost my job. While actively looking for a new line of work, creating this book became my new full time endeavor and I sought support from family and friends in the process. In April of 2020 I was back at work, so again the project progress became slow and unpredictable with limited free time.
At times I hit low points, not wanting to continue with the effort to refine, create, format, photograph, reformat, reformat again, and endless research into how to self publish. But, I was also blocked by a sense of not understanding where this story was coming from. What exactly was I creating?
It took time, more effort and more meditation, to finally see that the story itself was about the perfection of imperfection and scattered life cycle of the soul. Sure, there are parts of me that are still hiding and asleep. There are parts of my life that are still underwater. But, I am also capable of flight in some ways and all of that is great in it’s own way. We are all constantly evolving and transforming, a new adventure is always beginning.
thesonginthewind.com 