This is a great picture of the piece – but you have to see it in person to fully appreciate it, in my humble opinion. This is what Becky has to say about the dream that inspired the creation of this fun piece: This was a dream I had several times many years ago. We had aquarium fish, and my favorites were the clown loaches (with black and orange stripes). I dreamed I was trying to put the clown loaches in the blender, but they kept floating out. I was simultaneously horrified that I was putting them in the blender—and frustrated that they wouldn’t stay there. While I was creating this artwork a couple of odd details about the dream occured to me; one: the blender mixture was turning orange (not red as you would expect) and, two: I have never owned a blender.

Becky’s work can be found at http://www.BeckyDesigns.com

This is the dream that Tracey had that inspired this painting: It was a week or so after Davy Jones, my first crush, had died. Over the years, I had come to really admire and respect all of the Monkees individually, but Nesmith had become my favorite. I’m not sure why he was in the dream at all, but there was a cool rustic setting – a bar or a honky tonk – and hanging out and sharing stories. Then Mike and I went out on our horses and were going for a bit of a walk. It must have been near the end of winter, because most of the landscape was brown and there were bits of snow on the ground here and there. The trail we were on ended in a big pile of heavy snow, so he said we were turning around and going back. I kept looking off to the distance and said, “why can’t we go there instead?”

Tracey’s art can be found at http://www.SunshineFactory.net. She is also a website designer and so much more. You can find her at http://www.eeep.com/

“Spirit Windows”
Kat Peters-Midland
Acrylic

Dream: I am walking down this dark walkway, perhaps in a cave. There are these luminous spirit windows on the wall to my right. I peer in one and have this AHA about my life. I walk to another one to peer in – and I have another AHA! I continue walking and peering into these windows and having AHAS. They are as clear as day in the dream, but when I wake up I don’t remember any of my realizations.

This is what Carole has to say about her painting: Stasis represents a feeling of being stuck and withdrawn; a feeling I often had in dreams during my adolescence and early to middle adulthood. I was suspended between the subconscious and consciousness; it felt like drifting in a dense, gelatinous substance while being in a coma. I felt that I needed to submerge and numb myself to my home environment in order to survive. Elements of myself that reached the outside world and were visible to others, had to be impervious to hurt, like stone. The two ladybugs represent my parents floating in their own world.

Check out Carole’s webiste at http://www.CaroleHossan.com …she does paintings, 3D work, art in public places, and calligraphy. She will also be on the Studio Tour again this year!

‘Artists in Dreamland’ exhibit described as a visual dream diary

The annual dream art show opens May 4

By Courtney Holden Special to the Reporter-Heraldreporterherald.com
Posted: 05/03/2012 02:36:07 PM MDT

Members of the Poudre Studio Artists and Galleries invite people to “dream a little dream with them” this May with their fifth annual presentation of “Artists in Dreamland.”

“Every piece that’s in the exhibit is inspired by dreams in the night,” said Kat Peters-Midland, the show’s organizer and an exhibiting artist. “When you walk into this exhibit, you’re walking into a visual dream diary.”

“Artists in Dreamland” runs through May 26. An opening reception will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 4.

The show features a range of artistic mediums, from small paintings and sculptures to multi- and mixed-media presentations. All are representations of a dream that their creator had. Peters-Midland, for example, describes a ceramic sculpture that portrays a dream she had about visiting a friend on a farm and the warm, welcome feeling with which she woke.

“I took that essence of the nurturing mother in the dream and made a sculpture out of it,” she said, adding that the piece’s bright colors reflect a vibrant apron her friend wore in the dream.

Fellow artist, but first-time dream artist, Becky Hawley’s pieces depict dreams that have recurred over the years.

“It’s been really fun because it’s made me step back and look at the dreams from a different angle,” she said. “I look at all of them together, and I see these common psychological themes in them. It’s kind of scary.”

Peters-Midland notes that the show is highly personal to each of the artists presenting. She hopes that the show offers a chance to see unique art, while encouraging visitors to better appreciate their own dream

“We see ourselves when we sleep. We dissolve into the collective unconscious,” she said, mentioning Carl Jung and her own background in psychology. “We all dream in symbols. I can personally relate to these symbols, but also, we all can.”

Artists will include a short description about the dream-muse behind each piece.

“It really gives you some insight into the dream,” Hawley said. “You get to look into other peoples’ heads.”

The exhibit will be installed in about 2 1/2 weeks. It is in the Poudre River Gallery again, and it officially opens on Thursday May 3 and it runs through the 26th.

Gallery hours are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11 to 6 p.m.  And don’t forget, the opening reception is Friday May 4th from 5 to 9 p.m. during Gallery Walk.  We will have good food and good music – I hope to see you there!!

If you have even the teenies, tiniest question, please email me! You can also call me at 970-690-6984. It is a message phone, and I will call you back as soon as I can!!!

Download the entry form here

“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends.

For all ego-consciousness is isolated; because it separates and discriminates, it knows only particulars, and it sees only those that can be related to the ego.   Its essence is limitation, even though it reach to the farthest nebulae among the stars. All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night.

There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare of all egohood. It is from these all-uniting depths that the dream arises, be it never so childish, grotesque, and immoral. “

Source: The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man” (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 304

I found myself drawn to the dreams first, and then I’d look to see the dream in the art. A few of the artists were there and I had the chance to talk to them about their processes. One artist captured the image of her dream in a sketch before considering the dream’s story. Other artists let the dream itself show them how to create the art image. I admired how the artists encapsulated the essence of the dream with a visual interpretation.

Some of the dreams were familiar to me; I had dreamed them myself. Other dreams intrigued me-I wanted to delve into their layers of meaning. We all share the experience of dreaming. Freud theorized that dreams act as the guardian of sleep.
I like to think that dreams come to wake us up.

I’ve long been interested in dreams. At first Freud’s theory seemed to make some sense. For example, if I was thirsty I might dream about a cool refreshing drink instead of waking up to get a drink of water. Yet as my interest in dreams continued, the guardian-of-sleep theory seemed too shallow. It dismissed the richness of experience that dreams offer. If dreams are pure, unedited messages, direct from my subconscious mind, I wanted to find out just what those messages might be.

I joined a dream group to explore the mystery and messages of dreams. Because dreams speak symbolically and are often so strange and different from what we typically experience in waking life, the temptation to define and dismiss their meaning is lessened. There are an infinite number of ways to look at a dream image and what it might mean. Dreams are at once personal and universal. Although we share common archetypes and symbolic images, our interpretation of those images are uniquely our own. I learned in dream group to preface my interpretations with the phrase, “If this were my dream . . .”

Waking life is not all that different from dreams. That is, any event can be viewed symbolically and explored from as many perspectives as we can “dream” up.
Meaning is not outside ourselves. The way we perceive anything says more about who we think we are than about any circumstance or event. Projection makes perception. The value of dreams, and waking life, is that we gain insight into ourselves that allows us to “wake up” and become free of our mistaken, and limiting, thoughts.

Our interpretations are uniquely our own. When we remain focused on who we are, we no longer distract ourselves by criticizing or judging others.
And free of our mistaken beliefs, we realize that love is our nature. No longer needing our defenses, we naturally give and receive love.

You can view the free Artists in Dreamland art show at the Poudre Arts Gallery located in the Poudre River Arts Center. The show runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Jan Waterman is a writer and teacher who loves to question and seeks to align perception with the highest perspective. She hopes that what she writes will inspire others to consider new thoughts and ideas about their spiritual selves. Her column appears occasionally. Send email to: aligningperception@ gmail.com.