Autobiopictography

Recommended life review activity

'Autobiopictography' is a portmanteau I made up for a project in which the scenes of one's own life are depicted in cartoon form.

A written autobiography butts heads with my inner critic, who almost always wins. Every sentence invites judgment. I end up editing more than writing, circling the same few lines, never satisfied. An autobiopictography bypasses any need for textual detail. As I am not a good cartoonist and have no expectation of proficiency, my inner critic doesn't raise his head. He doesn’t care about shaky lines, disproportioned arms or missing faces. The process offers more enjoyment and less frustration.

The benefits of cartooning are numerous, from creative self-expression to developing problem-solving skills. Rather than realism, cartoons allow for, even require, simplification. Cartooning refines an event or thought to its essence. In this image, for example, I'm remembering when I was at my friend's house and their grandparents came to visit, bringing with them the spoils of their latest lapidary holiday. They laid the gems out on a blanket and told us to choose the gem we wanted. They let me go first and I, to the embarrassment of my mother when she heard about it later, chose the biggest amethyst they had. The image shows the essence of the memory: the amethyst's glow filling the room and my own greedy hand.

Cartooning an event can provide needed distance, and might even reframe it in humour. Here is the image of me breaking the swing set. Until I drew it, that memory sat in my head as a moment for shame. Little me, running full tilt, launching myself onto the bright orange plastic swing, expecting it to hold me, carry me forward and lift me up in flight. Instead, it snapped in half beneath me and I belly-flopped into the dirt. The swing set was packed up and put away beside the house, never again to be used. Now, this looks like a fun memory, as indeed it has become. There I am in my canon ball onesie, learning to fly. What a cute little weirdo. Tummy of steel.

Pictures are often more accessible than words. When I am ancient, post-verbal, and my carers sit down with me and flip through the Autobiopictography, I'll see the story and thoughts of my life in this accessible way. The project will then, as it did while I worked on it, allow me to reconstruct the story of my life, to bring together all my disparate memories and thoughts, my dreams and wishes, into one semi-coherent pictorial narrative.

I've included some more of my favourite images from the Autobiopictography project in the gallery below.