Ecclesiastes 3, Again

I woke up with a bolt of insight on why my efforts to illustrate Ecclesiastes 3 wasn't working: the images are too boomer-ish.

My intended audience--university undergrads in 2012--hold boomers in high disdain. My rough drafts just ooze "old man." Do university students today have any recollection of Pete Seeger's Turn, Turn, Turn? Do they have any affinity with aging hippies, the Rolling Stones, WW2 photos, or Emmett Kelly (ancient even by my standards)? Bottom line: millennials and gen-y folk do not think I am groovy.

My creativity is pressed to the max. How do I get into the heads of early 20-somethings?

And if I could, do I want to lock this graphic novel into their 2012 time and space?

Look at these photos from the latest issue of Newsweek. Which of these tribes is my audience? And how do I translate my vision of Mr. Q's vision in their language?

I've been assuming university students today are like I was 35 years ago...interested in philosophy, the Big Questions, existentialism, and melancholia.

I'm having a creative crisis right now....so here's the plan: I'm going to carry this chart around and fill it in with ideas that I hope will be more relevant to my intended audience.

One final question: is my writer's block due to the complex nature of my immediate task (imaging Eccl. 3 for a tribe different than my own)? OR, am I just brain weary, uninspired, and experiencing synaptic fatigue? I'm keeping this blog in order to grapple with such questions.