Light Touch

There are four of us presenting our work. 

I show a laborious sequence of images first. 

A woman paints everything royal blue including a local factory chimney. Its big and showy stuff but touches no-one.  

But it is the last that is the simplest and has most impact. A man directs us to concentrate on our breath and all of a sudden I am transformed and have stopped worrying about the poverty of my own contribution.

The Fourth Presenter

I am one of four presenters at the artists' Trade conference in Boyle. I am very nervous about it.
The first artist is a young confident man. His notes are organised and complex but he seems remote.
The second is a woman who is anxiously stacking piles of cards up on her desk.
I am the third. Totally unprepared. Doing something about a drawing massage exercise. I am asked by the facilitator what would your massage fantasy be? I'm a bit thrown and say something awkward back.
As I drew this dream I became conscious of the presence of an invisible fourth person next to me. There is real strength there and he is the core of this dream.

Buddhist Led Reality TV

A Buddhist teacher monitors the contestants at the start of a new reality TV show. The first entrants are a mainly female pop band . I practise with them but am always behind with the dance moves. They are alarmed when they are told that they will be expected to sing live. Next on is a successful male singer, a political agitator, media savvy and far too sure of himself. Last on is an ordinary man , a non celebrity. He stands before the monk aware that he may speak only when asked. He is presented with a Buddhist HOAN written in large black ink. Keep reading he is instructed or you get hit.

(HOAN = something to do with hone, haiku and possibly inchoate- also found the Chinese word huan from the I-Ching which means dispersion)

Love Not Fear

Using dairy cream on the kitchen walls, I am attempting to write up the story of a friend who is dicing with death. A very conservative Polish woman is sharing the space with me writing something incomprehensible in felt tip pen - its a bit more effective than cream. Mum and Dad are making food. Dad is reading the notes I have made based on Bill Hicks telling the world that we should love rather than fear each other.

John McGahern's Advice

In my waking life I have been dissatisfied with the quality of the ink drawings in the collected dreams series, also been panicking a bit because I had so much to do in such a short time.

John McGahern advises me not to rush things, but to draw in pencil with feeling.


On waking I heed the advice.

Initiation Rite

Nervous but excited, I have come to see a performance artist who is known to effect profound changes in mens' lives. He picks me out from the audience and takes me inside a black gypsy cabin. "You will be electrocuted here like the man in this video," he says. I begin to feel uneasy. Who is this guy? Will I be ok? I am always so careful in life. His face becomes demonic and he laughs, "How sweet! Too late to go back now. I will parade you naked through the streets of Carrick - everyone will know who you really are."
I am terrified and yet I still trust this man.