2022 Sequential Artists Workshop Anthology: The Rainbow Bridge
Last July, I bought The Rainbow Bridge: A SAW Anthology after hearing Tom Hart, the founder of The Sequential Artists Workshop, speak at the Graphic Medicine Conference in Chicago. Since attending the conference and listening to some SAW alumni speak about their work, I've decided to join their Graphic Memoir and Medicine group.
Tom beautifully explains the gift of graphic memoir in the foreword:
“Sooner or later something comes along that fractures our timeline. Upends our sense of simplicity, cohesion, or maybe our whole sense of self. Our regular brains are always spinning thoughts together that create a belief that we understand the world. But the fracture comes. That’s when we start grasping for story. In our Graphic Memoir + Medicine Intensive Working Group that’s what we share - the fracturing, and the story that helps us put the pieces back together. (…) We gather, we rock back and forth, we acknowledge the actors at play. We repeat their names - death, addiction, divorce, and worse. (…) Then we examine the remains of the fracture, and try piecing them together in new ways, collaging them back together, with help of the group. They always make a new, more nuanced whole; an imperfect but more truthful whole. Elizabeth Trembley, our host in the graphic memoir group, and I like to say, <<You’re not telling your story, you’re rewiring your brain.>> All of us in this medium are. When we use language - any language - we are reminded that our lives are always in the process of becoming. And in speaking and drawing, our past becomes integrated into an ever-changing present. Giving the fracture over to art frees us up to overcome the brain that understood, and take on new ideas and understandings. Beth says, <<Draw it and see how your life story changes!>> This is the gift that graphic memoir gives us.”
In the book, seventeen artists share excerpts from projects they are working on at SAW. I enjoy reading graphic medicine because I know that those comics will have an impact on me. I know I won't waste my time reading something trivial, but instead will be deeply moved by the true stories that fill the pages. This time was no different. Most of the stories dealt with trauma and loss. There was, however, a lot of humor too. It is inspiring to see how much original, creative work the authors featured in the volume produced.
As I read the stories, I’m wondering about the transformation the authors had to go through to create the comics. As I work on my own graphic novel, I also found myself reflecting on the personal growth that could result from joining SAW, which seems to be, I'm realizing, the main reason why I should join the group.
