Dream Work

To continue my 2016 review....

Dreaming a Kindred Spirit, 2015. Graphite & oil on wood panels, each 8x10".

For a contemporary surrealism show, The Last Best Dream, mounted by Radius Gallery in Missoula last February, I had a chance to explore some ideas that have interested me for quite awhile. My concern was with aspiration, our common hopes, rather than my own nighttime dreams, as one might expect in the context of surrealism, past or present.

One creative challenge for me was in employing a diptych format with two distinct perspectives on imagery that remained unified in other formal terms. I portrayed both the dreamer and the dream, one panel symbolically reflecting the sleeper's desire. The longing for close companionship -a sort of mirror image in a friend- was suggested in "Dreaming a Kindred Spirit" above.

The (nearly) universal yearning for a secure and comfortable home  in "Dreaming a Nest".

Dreaming a Nest, 2016. Graphite & oil on wood panels, each 14x11".

With the plight of refugees and migrants weighing on my mind and heart, "Dreaming Safe Passage", evoked a long ocean journey. But this imagery might also relate to all the ways we travel and seek to reach other sorts of destinations.

Dreaming Safe Passage, 2016. Graphite & oil on wood panels, 7x11 & 17x11".

Dreaming a Full Pantry, 2016. Graphite & oil on wood panels, each 8x10".

The longing for sustenance -if not abundance- was suggested by homegrown, well-preserved food inspired "Dreaming a Full Pantry". 

Dreaming a Green Horizon, 2016. Graphite & oil on wood panels, 5x7 & 11x7".

In "Dreaming a Green Horizon" I considered the fertile prospects we hope to provide our youth, the open field that holds promise for all.

I had the pleasure of bringing this imagery into an intaglio printmaking class with Bev Beck Glueckert at Missoula Art Museum. I printed versions of the sleeper and embellished them with visions of "Safe Passage", as well as "Ample Time". Who does not wish for more time day to day or over the course of life to accomplish all that calls?

Dream: Safe Passage, 2015. Monotype with graphite, 11x14".

Dream: Ample Time, 2016. Monotype with graphite, 11x14"

A galloping draft horse reflects the desire for all the strength and energy, the exuberance even, to meet our challenges.

Dreaming Power, 2016. Monotype with graphite, 11x14".

The quest for transcendence took shape as a pair of wings in "Dreaming Flight". 

Dreaming Flight, 2016. Monotype with graphite, 11x14".

I took wing myself, with the invitation to exhibit with surrealists, though I don't count myself among them. This body of work took me to new places in pictorial space, palettes and processes. I am grateful for the opportunity, and the fruits it has born in my ongoing endeavors.