The Yellow Book Collection

Do you know that feeling when you’re about to fall asleep, but you suddenly remember a forgotten item on your to-do list or the answer to a question that’s been bugging you? Maybe you spend the next sleepless hour ruminating over it, or maybe you just doze off and instantly forget the thought. The worst feeling is waking up the next morning remembering that you had a thought, but not remembering the thought itself.

I eventually got so sick of this feeling that I started texting myself those pre-sleep thoughts as soon as I had them. This ensured that I would not lose the thought and also helped me delegate my late night to-dos to morning-me.

At first my texts were just appointment reminders and packing lists, but soon I started waking up to bizarre messages of funny thoughts that I had just before falling asleep. Most of them were pretty straightforward albeit weird concepts. I still have no clue what I meant by “rainboot filled with jello”, but I do remember that I thought it was brilliant at 11:53pm.

As someone who doodles regularly, the natural next step was to draw out these fever-dream texts to myself, starting with rough sketches in my Yellow Book. Oftentimes these drawings led to new inspirations or themed series, and the ideas kept compounding. The more I practiced translating abstract thoughts into text and then images, the easier it got to tap into creativity.

My mom worries there’s drugs involved in my process, but it really is just science.

If you want to read the whole story behind this collection, check it out here