www.octaikon.co.uk
© A. Marcus J. Robbins 2014

Al is a late arrival during the 25 years
that I have tried to understand
why we all have different ideas,
behave in different ways, believe different things,
and get into arguments or worse over them.
As I’ve done this, I had to develop a graphical framework
to help compare, contrast and synthesise these ideas.

But only recently, I decided that I needed
an alter ego to help explain the model,
using my love of drawing
to create a pen friend to represent him/her.

I can't remember how (maybe it was a sudden inspiration)
but he/she took the form of a combination between
the Roman letter A and the Greek omega
(all face and spindly limbs)
because I thought he/she could represent
the beginning and end (the ALpha and Omega) of all things.

As a result, my friend was given the name AL.
That name worked at many levels
e.g. Alan is my first name (not Marcus),
and many associated words begin or end with AL,
not least Alter ego, AL for allegory, comicAL etc.
allowing me to have a bit of pun!

Some browsers will have guessed that
Al can represent Jesus the Christ –
both the historical Jesus who lived just over 2000 year ago,
and the Christ, the divine creative principle,
who has always been and is in all of us,
waiting to help us get our act together.

GO TO AL’s CREATIVE PAGE