When I was a kid, I remember my older sister, Kim received what I thought was one of the coolest gifts ever. It was a long cardboard tube. Inside that tube was a package of felt markers and a large poster in black and white.
In 1973, Doodle Art started selling these posters as one-page coloring books. The posters always had scenes with several things in the background, mid, and foregrounds, they were very complex and would require hours and hours of coloring to complete, so much, in fact, that one's markers usually ran out of ink before they were completed.
Doodle Art Poster - Mythology
What I remember most about this event, was that the particular poster my sister had was full of mythological creatures. As a kid, I was always fascinated by these creatures from fairy tales and various mythologies. Needless to say, I coveted that poster so very much. Despite my begging and childish negotiations, my parents weren't able to get a duplicate for me; as diplomatic as they were, they suggested I helped Kim complete hers. If memory serves, I think I got to spend some quality time with my big sister suggesting colors and occasionally getting to help with the coloring.
As usual with my personality, I voraciously read everything I could that had to do with mythological creatures. I checked-out every book from the local library I could and read as much as my adolescent mind could handle about the various beasts concerning their strange forms and fantastic magical powers (sorry, no "ligers" back then).
With all that reading about the animals of mythology, I learned the stories of mythology, and with all the mythology came the religion, and with the religion came the symbols, etc. And about ten years ago I heard of Joseph Campbell and all of his work in comparative religion, The Hero's Journey et al., and suddenly all these stories came flooding back and I saw them in a new light.
When I started doing my Constellationism again in 2010, the images that came to form had new meaning in this respect, it was easier to see that they pointed past themselves to something deeper and more meaningful than I previously comprehended. I recognized that, since they were coming out of the subconscious, they (like myths and dreams) mere made of the same gossamer material. The historicity of a myth is irrelevant, because when you try to read a myth as fact it loses all of its' meaning. To read myth as poetry, in a language of symbols, is when the story comes to life and all of its' meaning becomes brilliant. Even if you cannot explain quite why it affects you, you know that it has, and that is what art does. It doesn't have to make sense, but it has to reach you on that same level.
Thanks to my parents, for being cool enough to buy the poster and for selecting that particular one, and thanks to my big sister, Kim, for being cool enough to share! Who knows what I'd be doing with myself if it had not happened exactly how it did.