On the street

This may also be part of the Inside Out Project – it was at the same site in Woodstock and is also a black and white photograph pasted up – but it’s not a close-up portrait like the others and this little boy is much younger than the students from Hout Bay High. Perhaps it’s by one of the kids but not part of the original project.

It caught my attention anyway – just like I seem to have caught this little man’s attention too. There’s something quite grown up yet vulnerable about him, in his jacket that’s just a little too big and missing his shoes. Yet his look is as enquiring of me as I am of him.

And this too was on the same disused building. It's by Cape Town street artist Faith47. It looks to me like a baby elephant – collapsed, dead? Almost dreaming – or perhaps in the middle of a nightmare.

To find out more about Faith47: http://www.faith47.com/

And nightmares...

These are some details from some of the sketches in my dream diary. All kinds of nightmarish fears are in it – of riots, destruction, powerlessness, hopelessness, homelessness, harm, prejudice, judgement...

But I’ve also included two images of wonder and delight – a shoal of fish swimming near me and a flock of chickens freely wandering through the countryside with me at night.

Dreams

I recently pulled out a pile of old notebooks and photo albums, and amongst them was a dream diary I’d begun when I was eighteen and in first year. I’d wanted something just for me – I didn’t want anyone looking over my shoulder, telling me what to draw and how to draw it. So I used a blue ballpoint pen and kept my sketches quick and rough. The perspectives might be skewed, straight lines are often wobbly, and any mistakes are worked over or shrugged off. 

Stars and snails on the cover.

Peering over the edge of my bed into a pool of water.