Awakening

Awakening
Acrylic on 16 x 20 gallery wrapped canvas, 2009

Available at www.livefunky.etsy.com

As I've probably already mentioned, I'm a real hermit in the winter months. I think my totem animal is a bear and like bears, I hibernate. I can't sleep all winter long, but I do sleep much longer hours in the winter. I end up having the deepest and most dazzling dream world during this time that I really enjoy. The other night I was roaming around this place that reminded me of South Beach. Clubs/hotels right up against the ocean - I was walking on the beach, hanging out poolside, meeting new people - it was a blast! Last night I saw my grandmother playing cards. She passed away when I was ten and it was so amazing to feel like I really SAW her (my memories of her have been replaced with photographs of her so it felt so real to "see" her in 3 dimensions). When I wake up the dreams stay with me. I've been lucky to have such positive dreams lately, the worst is when a bad dream sticks with you throughout the day (stay away nightmares!). So this dreamy state of mind led me to name this new painting Awakening. The hazy colors and composition remind me of slowly coming back to the "real" world from another dream dimension. Sometimes I wonder if it's just my imagination or if I'm really experiencing these things somewhere...else. What are dreams? They feel like so much more than just neurons firing.

I really do believe that there are several types of dreams.

1. Regular old dreams - These are quite simply a mix and match of memories, things picked up from the day - a conversation, a scene from a movie or a book, a thought process, whatever. They jumble around to form a scene that can make sense or not, either way, it doesn't really matter or mean anything in particular.

2. Regular dreams with substance - These come about the same way as regular dreams, but things are arranged to actually tell/teach you something. It's like your subconscious gathers the stuff in your head like art materials to paint you a picture that your conscious mind needs to see. It could be about your job, your relationships, your health. Sometimes you wake up and think "well that was random" and then it dawns on you that there was a message in there.

3. Visitations - I honestly believe that our loved ones that have passed can and do visit us in our sleep. I'm not sure if my grandmother actually came to me last night, but I know without a doubt that my uncle has before. Those dreams knock my socks off and make me believe with all my heart that we go on.

4. Time travel - Yes, you heard me right. When I was a kid, I had dreams of walking around my parent's "neighborhood" which didn't exist then because at that time they were one of only three houses on a long dirt road. Now there is a whole new development that changed the landscape greatly. It looks exactly as I saw it back then in my dreams. And back then, there was a certain style of housing developments much different than today. How could I dream up the McMansion with huge yards look back then? Especially when our little house is just a simple ranch in the woods. Other futuristic dreams I've had include being on a monorail in a city with the monorail cutting through buildings multiple stories up. Lots of underground trains too and in one dream, personal flying machines filling the sky.

5. Other - Who knows what else is possible. Some dream worlds seem so elaborate down to every detail that I wonder if I'm in some other dimension. Like a parallel planet or something. I know, crazy. This could just be my overactive imagination, but who knows? There's so much about our existence that we don't understand so I'm open to possibilities...

Now that you really think I'm nuts may I remind you I'm an artist. It goes with the territory.