I have kept a daily visual diary for more than thirty years, sometimes done as automatic drawings with no planning or preconceived image in mind. The hand begins to move and out of a cobweb of lines an image emerges. While making one of these drawings, on October 21, 2012, my diary was taken over by Coyote. That drawing was Coyote’s First Steps. It depicts his initially awkward attempt to stand, the shape-shifter desirous of infiltrating and understanding modern humanity. Since that date, more than eight hundred drawings ago, I have been in a partnership with Coyote through which he reveals himself to the modern world.
“Why did Coyote come to you?” I have been asked. As an artist I have learned to never filter or self-censor my initial impulses. I think this is important in accessing my subconscious and connecting to the collective unconscious. Coyote came to me, I believe, because of my open and accepting attitude. The presence of Coyote feels real, very different from a constructed alter-ego or some buried aspect of my personality rising from the depths. But neither am I a passive medium “channeling” Coyote. Partnership is my best description.
“What does this relationship, this imparted perspective, have to offer others?” Another question I have been asked. Has Coyote come to simply observe, through me, the modern world? Or does he come to offer aid by example? Does he remind us, a society that seems to have forgotten its connection to the natural world, of our mythic roots? His motives can be obscure. He is a trickster figure, after all, and on these questions I have no definitive answer.