The Dream Deer

As seen in The Washer Woman ( [link] ) Dream Deer JW makes another appearance! His role in his own story "Hawksaw" has been going through so many revamps that he ought to be a Jack of all trades by now.

The concept of dream-weaving has been around since Wolfy became a solid character a few years ago. That was where the Nightmares came from. I thought I might fiddle in the realm of dreams for a while. Back when I started getting into Endless Forest, I had a habbit of pretending whatever game character I was playing was one of my guys. (Maurice for Travis in Silent Hill: Origins etc...) and thought wouldn't it be neat if JW got a dreamcatcher at some point that when he slept under, took him to this place. This open wide forest with no hurt and no danger.

Well my computer decided to SUCK and I couldn't play the game anymore but the shape of a human-faced deer and a lot of the other art by fellow players continued to inspire me. It shows up in other art, old paintings, pots, legends and things. I felt more comfortable playing with it since it showed up in actual mythology and art.

ANYWAY, back to the topic, JW was made a sort of hall monitor or crossing guard for the Inbetween (the place where you're barely awake and not quite asleep where dreams seem real and hard to decipher) to stop dangerous things coming from the Otherworld to Ours. Or rather in his case, to just alert somebody stronger than him to stop them. He's not very learned in the way of Dreamscapes yet and doesn't know how to manipulate them. He bends with the settings he wanders through but prominently shows up as a stag in primary colors (mostly blue) with red thread caught in his horns, sometimes in the shape of a game of Cat's Cradle. ( [link] )

This thread is key and has shown up in other art of mine like The Red Thread ( [link] )and New Socks ( [link] ). Without the thread, he cannot leave or get to the Inbetween. It's a reminder (tie a string around your finger!) that everything is connected. Thread is important to me. It makes me think of my mother and my grandmother. Both could sew the SHIT out of whatever they put their mind to, and I want to be like that some day too. There wasn't a corner in my grandmother's house that didn't have thread wadded up or stuck to something.

He's also just really fun to draw! 8I

So, there you go.