One of my long time favorite writers is Jack Kerouac. Jack Kerouac was a prolific writer who passed on sooner than anyone would have wanted. Both Kerouac and I share a story telling style where we use(d) the same real "characters" over and over again to represent certain moods, traits or feelings that these people are chosen to represent.
I have three characters in particular that I use: a blue eyed tall male, dark haired curvy woman and curly red haired woman. The dark hair woman is usually me or the protagonist. Occasionally the character representing me or the protagonist will show up in a disguise such as Smokey the Bear in the painting "Fear Based Choices". The other female and blue eyed male are real friends of mine that I use their physical attributes to represent "fear, desire, confusion or compassionate, etc.- whatever the mood or feeling is that I want to convey.
To insert these people literately into the story would be wrong they are simple other views of myself. In the painting "The Mermaid and the Kitchen wench. The Mermaid (red haired woman) represents desire which the protagonist (dark haired woman in the galley viewed through a window) represents longing and looking for other possibilities. The three men on the top are oblivious to what is going on with the women involved as they are in their own scenarios.
