A few months ago, I created a new coloring book called Cirque Fantastique. I wanted to explore the theme of a phantasmagorical carnival, a bizarre circus right out of your dreams! The result was this amazing coloring book.

As with Living Fractals, I used an AI to create elements for my collage work. I have been working in collage since 1999, and AI is now my preferred medium for my collages. I used to use old Victorian engravings, which are Public Domain images. But now, I am fascinated by the potential of AI, whose raw images are also PD. But, as with the engravings, I use many different elements, along with a ton of retouching, resizing, and manipulation, to create a whole new composition. That is why I use the Midge Turing pen name, because I am an established artist using pen and ink and colored pencil, I didn’t want to confuse people with my hand drawn work.

Cirque Fantastique, as with all my books, was a fun journey. It took about five months to make, because these images were especially complex and challenging. The image above, the Fortune Teller, needed a lot of work, mainly because AI’s are pretty dumb, actually. In the original render, her left arm was her right arm — with a left hand on it! So, I had to fix the left arm and create a whole new right arm! Additionally, she needed a complete background replacement. So it was with most of the book. But it was fun making it.

I endeavored to create images with both whimsy and a light touch of darkness. I have worked with my dreams for a few decades now, and I try to incorporate the feeling and sensibility of dreams wherever I can. To be honest, that is why I am fascinated with AI images. They are so darned dreamlike! Making my book, The Lost Journals of Phineas Finke felt like being in a waking dream. The images seemed like photographs I took in a dream and managed to bring with me when I woke up. (Something I’ve tried to do all my life: bring something out of a dream).

Waking life and dreams are closely linked, and they share several attributes. One of those attributes is that our expectations often govern our reality. In dreams, expectations completely govern the outcome of a dream. It is crucial in dreamwork to use your expectations to control your dream, as in a lucid dream.

In waking life, our expectations can attract those things to you: what you are expecting – good or bad – is drawn to you. Plus, our expectations also color our perception of life’s events. Managing our own expectations is the key to happiness in our life.

If you like challenging and unusual coloring books — or even if you just like strange and dreamlike images, you’ll want to get your hands on Cirque Fantastique. It’s available online everywhere.

If you order from me on AntarcticaArts, you can get it signed. Or, you can get it on Amazon all over the world. You can even purchase a Digital Edition of the book on Etsy, so you can download a pdf and then print the pages as many times as you want!

Thanks for reading! There’s always more to come…..