Making Art In My Sleep

A few nights ago I had a series of particularly vivid dreams that related to art. Today was my first day in the Studio since then, so I decided to finally put some stuff on paper. The first part of the dream involved Molly, who brought me a proof of a new print she was working on. It was a very large etching, about 48" x 30" vertical, of a scene in an alley in an urban environment. The print was made with 3 registered plates, each inked with a different color- a bluish black, a medium brown, and a red-orange. The print was all light line etch, an early state with more to go. The sketch in the top photo gives a very rough sense of what it was, along with the colors. When I told Molly about the dream, she thought it interesting, though she did observe that the kind of image/subject was more like something I would do than something of hers, which is true. At this point neither of us has plans to create such a print.

The second dream involved me going to the Studio, starting from Belmar. Got into my truck, parked on what seemed to be E Street near 7th, and drove north. Very quickly the neighborhood changed from it's usual look (nice houses, big leafy trees) to a more urban environment, but a devasted one. Buildings were extremely dilapidated. In my dream it was an extreme urban decay, but it looked more like the results of an earthquake or war zone. Piles of rubble and other garbage were all around. I turned left onto 5th, heading toward Main Street, and my truck morphed into a bicycle, which helped me skirt some of the street obstacles. Besides all this, these blocks were full of people- standing, stumbling, sitting around, all looking haggard, derelict- I'd think they were zombies, except that zombies (in the movies) attack the living, while these people completely ignored me. I assumed they were hopeless addicts. Constantly running through my thoughts (other than wondering why Molly found us a Studio that required passing through such a neighborhood) was the phrase "walking dead". A right onto Main and over the bridge into Avon, and everything returned to normal. A simplified 2 page sketch of the scene is seen in the 2nd photo.

The dream itself had little to do with art, but the visual (with streets, multiple buildings, and many figures) reminded me more than a little of some of my large format prints. I could see this being the source of another one. I imagine this broken city and its residents representing any number of disasters- wars, natural disasters, society's many breakdowns. Not a priority, but I'll keep it mind for a future project.

The fact that both dreams involved urban scenes seems to be a coincidence. The alley in Molly's print was relatively pleasant place, where neighbors might chat and kids play. The burned out neighborhood in the second dream was a nightmare- it's probably for the best that I saw no kids there.