About himself, Mr. Barker writes:
"My enthusiasm
as an artist is rooted not in any particular medium, but in the
act of imagining. My books, films, drawings and plays, though
they may seem to be very disparate in content, are all mapping
out different parts of the same landscape: that is to say, the
world between my ears. I am motivated to write or paint by images
and scenes which arise from my subconscious, without invitation,
which seem on closer inspection to dramatize elements of my deeper
self.
I am a Jungian, not a Freudian. I believe
that the collective unconscious -- a pool of shared images and
stories which all humanity is heir to -- exists, and that the
artist dealing in the fantastique is uniquely placed, in that
he or she can create stories or paintings which dramatize the
eruption of the unconscious into our day to day lives.
I've pointed out many times that we spend
one-third of our lives asleep. During the adventure of dreaming,
we are making both a private investigation into our hopes and
fears and also swimming in the dream pool which we share with
the rest of our species.
I hope that the fiction I write will empower
us to both comprehend our secret dream selves and understand the
profound intimacy we share with every other human being."