dream – sunshine factory

This is My Bike

Dream: This is My Bike

I was walking alongside a friend who was riding his bike. We were headed for NYC from NJ and having a nice, leisurely walk/ride. At some point, though, the chain fell off his bike and he couldn’t ride anymore. Luckily, we were right across the street from some notable bike co-op and we hoped they would fix it for him. We went in and while they worked on his bike, I wandered the offices, which were in a really cool old victorian walkup. I visited the gift shop, where they sold brightly colored dog paintings and there was a display with the names of each volunteer and what they had accomplished in the organization, represented by assorted shapes in a divided display box. I thought it was nice that they had taken the time to honor and develop the talents of the people who worked there for no pay. Then I was given a bike to alter and I started painting it. When I left it to dry, someone else took it and undid all of the work that I had begun.

(mixed media piece using rescued bike, spray paint, spray webbing, wood, polymer clay, metal)

Last Fire in the Living Room

The Dream: Last Fire in the Living Room

We are in the process of trying to move my mom out of the house she and my dad moved into over 40 years ago. It’s been difficult and traumatic for all six kids and for mom, but with me being so far away from New Jersey, I’ve been having lots of anxiety about this new phase in our lives. I dreamed that I was in mom’s living room and all of the furniture was gone, no pictures on the walls, which were painted white. I don’t even think that the carpet was there anymore. There was a pile of big brown leaves from the tree out front that had blown into the room and sort of drifted up against the fireplace, which was in a different location and was cold and dark. As I stood there, a little area of the leaves in the middle of the room caught on fire and I tried to stomp it out with my shoe.

(mixed media shrine using cigar boxes, corrugated cardboard, acrylics, wood pieces, shrink plastic, light element, picture frame, brown paper bag, beaded trim)

Hostage Teeth

The Dream: Hostage Teeth

The economy really messed us up and we’re behind in some of our bills, most notably to our dentist, which causes me extreme anxiety. In the dream I was talking and my teeth started falling out of my mouth. I don’t remember it hurting, but it was very upsetting. I went to the dentist and he looked at my mouth and said he wouldn’t fix my teeth until he knew that he was going to get paid. So I’m sitting there, missing teeth and completely baffled as to how this was going to work. Suddenly there were many people in the waiting room and in came a terrorist with a syringe and the focus was off my teeth and how I was going to save all of the people in the dentist’s office.

(mixed media shrine using cigar box, wood pieces, Mardi Gras beads, acrylics, teeth mold rescued from the dentist)

Riding Horses with Mike Nesmith

I have been wanting to post photos of the pieces I did for Artists in Dreamland, but this is the first chance I’m getting to do so. For those who haven’t heard yet of this annual exhibit, it’s a show managed by Kat Peters-Midland, of Two Dog Art Studio. Kat is really into dreams and dream art and she conceived this show as a collection of works that are inspired by the artist’s dream, or is a representation of the dream. The viewer gets to view the art side-by-side with a written description of the dream (or dreams) that inspired it. I just love this show and find it a great challenge to turn my often-weird and colorful dreams into something that both pleases me and is intriguing to those who view it.

So, over the next week, I’ll be posting a photo of each of the four pieces I did for this year’s exhibit, along with the dream that inspired it. I’m especially proud of today’s piece because it’s not my usual style AND it came in 3rd place in the People’s Choice vote. That makes me super proud!

The Dream: Riding Horses with Mike Nesmith

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?”

(mixed media painting using canvas, acrylics, pencils, twine, cottonwood tree branches, eyelets)