I had a hard 2020. Everyone did, but my first day at a group home was the first day of the Covid lockdown. I was freshly diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and in denial that my writing didn’t come as easily as it once had.
That October, I jumped in front of a train. After many surgeries, I emerged pretty much unscathed. It was a psychiatrist at the mental hospital who recommended I return to art.
When I arrived at Trempealeau, a long-term care facility, I began filling sketchbooks. Eventually, a shift happened: people started coloring in them. It was an amazing experience to watch; suddenly, everyone felt like an artist. Looking at the pages, one man said, “It’s like a thousand faces staring back at you.”
I hope you enjoy collaborating with me now, just like my friends at Trempealeau did. Use a blotter page underneath each page to enhance your coloring experience, especially when using heavy-duty markers. Welcome to my sketchbook. Welcome to A Thousand Faces Staring Back at You.
Visit the Lulu Bookstore to pick up your copy:
After the psychologically scarring death of her father, wild child Rosie Dwyer is introduced to journal keeping. She initially considers this writing form to be cliché. Before the death, Rosie valued chaos and rebellion- from “protest-peeing” in class to shoving a Twinkie in a classmate’s eye. However, once Rosie gives into this mode of writing, a cathartic obsession begins. Her entries often focus on her childhood enemy, Logan Fields, after he becomes Rosie’s permanent peer editor in creative writing class. While Rosie loses touch with both loved ones and reality, an unlikely friendship builds between her and Logan. Together, they must try to find the meaning behind insanity- in the school theatre, in the public library, and in the middle of a false Apocalypse.
Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Art available on the Arts for All Madison Website.
https://arts-for-all-wi.square.site/shop/zelda-bean/CZA4XFAFXCAOYUNXSXIWU5WI
Want to buy mugs, notebooks and tees? It’s easy to find. Just click the shopping cart or this link: https://bleedingacrylic.com/shop/