Guilty But Insane

Guilty But Insane is the second volume in Johannes' autobiographical series. In Cheltenham Art College, we are plunged into 1974, the heady 'after-flush' of the sixties, with its extraordinary mish-mash of spirituality, politics, mind expansion, music and love. His three years of sculpture degree course (1975-78) saw him at Winchester College of Art and Design, dabbling in metaphysical constructions and flirting with punk.Johannes unashamedly and candidly shares his psychotropic experiences, first love and first work. The book is well 'spattered' with colourful incidents, character vignettes, friendships and strange happenings. We are given a vision of a freer world, less constrained by fear and legislation.Various hitch-hiking trips with his stalwart companion, Aonghus Gordon, are undertaken to Greece, Turkey, Southern Europe, Israel and Egypt. Ancient cultures and the continuity of civilisation are explored. The summer of 1979, sees them in America, travelling as the early settlers did, from east to west, revelling in the boundless diversity and splendour of the natural world and working in a Camphill Community for adults with special needs, in New York state.In the early eighties, Johannes' first serious commissions kick in: the pen drawings for Peter Patterson's book, Fal, and the Rowan Tree 'Grail' fountain.In the early eighties, Johannes' first serious commissions kick in: the pen drawings for Peter Patterson's book, Fal, and the Rowan Tree aaEA Grail' fountain.