Slowths
One of the things that I want to do before I turn 30 is publish a children's book. I've had an idea in the works for a few years now to create a book about a sloth. The animals have been enjoying a relative amount of popularity after the Animal Planet documentary series 'Meet the Sloths' about a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica.
One of the two-toed sloths at London Zoo
For those who like sloths, it is much more polite to call them 'slowths', rather than compare them to the deadly sin. My initial plot idea was the 'fish out of water' variety: the slowth wants to do something typically done fast (which is a bit too much like Alexis Deacon's book Slow Loris). I did a few sketches and even started working on a large-scale drawing, but that idea eventually fizzled out. Slowths really embody the idea of the Slow Movement, which I really only started reading about as research for my book idea. There's even a Sloth Club in Japan that practices Slow Movement ideas. In reading about these ideas, I have found something that seems to encompass a whole new way of seeing the world, one that eschews all the stress, competition, and destructive elements of modern life. Slow living means taking the time to enjoy food, family, friends, and leisure, and caring for yourself, others, and the ecosystem. So now I'm back on track with the slowth children's book project. At the moment, all my disparate current (and long-term) obsessions: Alexis Deacon, China Miéville, Einstürzende Neubaten, Nils Frahm, London, and the Slow Movement, are congealing into something that kind of, hopefully, makes sense. We'll see, keep tuned.
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