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Blair Drawson Explains It All.

In Blair’s own words, here’s the story behind Dreams of Patoot…

“Some time ago I rediscovered a metaphorical Horn of Plenty crammed with images — good, bad, and indifferent. These were my own works, the products of years of work-for-hire, plus many of my ‘self-commissioned’ paintings. At any rate, I had a lot of them. I was called upon to interpret certain causes, tropes, and ideas that found their way into print. Celebrity portraits. Jocular entertainments. Works of fashion, fiction, and friction. Scientific or socio-economic concepts shown in less abstract, more graspable depictions for the common reader. All of these were painted in styles that seemed appropriate to the subject matter, and which varied considerably in tone – from the broadly comic to the gravely austere and beyond. And all were filtered through my own personal artistic sensibilities.”

“It occurred to me that perhaps there was a story somewhere within these many images. Was there a narrative here, really? And isn’t it working backwards to contrive a story after the fact of the pictures, especially when there are so many of them? The mule goes before the wagon; he doesn’t push it from behind, like an ass.”

“Yes indeed. But sometimes when one doesn’t really know what one can or cannot do, or where one is, one blunders into a fool’s paradise. Plain enough was that Dreams of Patoot would be no children’s book. Far too many pictures in the cornucopia were of the naughty variety.”

“The big hurdle was the problem of consistency of characters from one page to the next. Obviously, the raw material had been originally done for any number of purposes and applications. How then does one contrive a flow of action that shows a central character that the reader can identify and follow from scene to scene, no matter how outlandish the setting? The answer: one doesn’t. The key was contained in the word ‘outlandish’.”

“Make the story a sort of sci-fi one! Set the action some place, to something like what we are used to — but not the same! And give the denizens of that place the ability to change their appearance, willy-nilly, and at any moment!”

“Ergo: the Periodic Form Changement.”

“And while you’re at it, have some fun with language! Make up bad translations that demonstrate the silliness of idioms and expressions which we use every day.”

“And while you’re at that, might as well take some pot shots at the customs and mores that we live by. But entertain them too! Give them Plafunda! Give them Plafundatongue! Give them Patoot!”

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Blair Drawson’s interactive visual narrative for the iPhone is now available for downloading from the iTunes Store.


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July 12, 2013