I would argue that do to her exploration of the way images or ideas are different things (memories, experiences, stories, etc) Lynda Barry’s book What It Is is, in itself, an example of formstorming. She explores different ideas based on images in new ways. By brainstorming in this way, she is using her novel as a template to discover what she feels images are. She explores her own memories in this way. By taking her readers from the feeling of knowing a stuffed animal blinked at her, to the way she remembers the novel Heidi being so real, she explores feelings in an unusual journal entry form. I found one of the stronger pages of formstorming Barry uses is on page 22, where she shows different forms of what experience is. By scanning the page you find specific experiences, such as bike riding and working in a factory, to more abstract ideas of experience; “can it ring a bell” and what I would call a smoke monster rising out from the factory (Barry, 22). Her use of dark blues and black mixed with yellow give a point of confusion to her artwork. This adds to her formstorming, identifying images and experience as something that need to hold more discovery. Barry continues to use this on other pages, such as 48 where she explores different forms of wandering, or on page 16 where images are explored through other forms of images. Barry’s use of formstorming images as images works well within her novel exploring her past as she identifies where ideas originate.

From Lynda Barry’s book What It Is, page 22. Published in May 2008, by Drawn & Quartley.

Citation: Barry, Lynda. What It Is. Sigamore: Drawn & Quality, 2008. Print.