Dreams have been fascinating to me for as long as I remember. “Have you had any cool dreams?” is a question I ask again and again. According to Carl Jung,”Dreams are a way of communicating and acquainting yourself with the unconscious. Dreams are not attempts to conceal your true feelings from the waking mind, but rather they are a window to your unconscious. They serve to guide the waking self to achieve wholeness and offer a solution to a problem you are facing in your waking life.” I love that! My dreams have at times been signposts interpreting the road I am on.
For years I have had a reoccurring dream that I was standing in the hallway of a new floor in my house. Each time I had this dream, I would try to open the doors only to find each of them locked. The last time I dreamt this I found one door unlocked. The door led me into another hallway of lovely rooms. Rooms with an abundance of light and colors. The fabrics and furniture were pleasing and interesting. The closets looked small, but upon examination held secret passageways and opened into other worlds to explore (much like C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”). At the end of the hallway was a little kitchen area with a door out to a garden. That particular dream forecasts the change and wonder that studying art would bring to me. Art was a surprise for me, I did not anticipate that it would be a part of my life. After 20 years, I am still excited to wake up to its adventure. Art has changed me in many ways, It has given me a new self esteem, a skill for meditation which has held me in its arms for hours at a time. It is an escape from stress like no other. And it has taught me how to fly, how to get outside myself. Art gives me permission to play, It is the gate allowing me to move freely between the practical world and the world of fun and fantasy. Creativity is what keeps the child in us alive.