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Dream Paintings

Most of the following are simply paintings of dream scenes, but some are paintings of paintings seen in dreams, like Shy Sphinx; some, paintings of other kinds of art seen in dreams, like Saint Bridget's painting of a mosaic. Still others are dreams of paintings that the dreamer recorded another way, like Frida's Prison Paintings--a purely digital sketch of a large painting seen in a dream, or Public Events vs. Snakes from India, a colored-pencil rendering of a dream provoked by a nondream painting.

How to paint dreams? I think artists should consider this rule-of-thumb used by science fiction and fantasy writers: "If your premise is outrageous, simplify your style; story and style shouldn't compete." I think it's true of dream-art too. Familiar sights can be stylized; but weird scenes need no embellishment or stylization; you may just confuse viewers.

Most dream-paintings on this list are acrylic not oil. It may be a need for immediacy. When you wake with a vision, spending weeks on an oil painting (with no photo refs to keep the dream scene fresh!) just seems harder than to get it all down that morning in acrylic, even if it's a bit rougher. When I've needed oil effects, I've faked it with acrylic, either by blending really fast before it dries (fingers work better than brushes), or by adding a SMALL drop of dish soap to the water used for thinning--that slows the drying of acrylic paint from minutes to hours, if not the days you get with oil. Or buy an acrylic retardant... but they're basically thin soap sold at paint prices.

RELATED TOPICS: watercolor and silk-dyeing - pencil and charcoal - pure digital art - ink - felt pen and colored inks - photocollages and altered photos - comics - posters and picture-poems - sculpture - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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ABOVE SOCIETY: by Jayci Ferrimani; c. 1998, painting of a flying dream with a point
I flew over a forest. I noted the trees were all the same, and told myself to remember this...
AFTER BIRTH: by Wayan, 2004/9/29, astral acrylic painting
Never mind an afterlife! What if, before life, we were spirits with no idea what happens after birth?...
THE AIR BURUNDI PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 7 illus., 2007/1/20, a dream of art & courage
Weird paintings cover a hill town in Africa, demanding I paint them when I wake.
Paintings on courage, flight... and defying tradition.
AL CAPP'S HORSES: by Wayan; 1988/4/12, a dream predicting an odd image, palette and painting style
I dream cartoonist Al Capp switched late in life to painting horses in a weird expressive style;
I wake, write the dream, rush to work to find a painting of horses in a weird expressive style
CAUTION: CAUSTIC TO E.S.P. DENIERS
AMERICAN TANKA: by Wayan; dreamed 1989/7/26, painting-poem-story on 30" disk, 1995.
I dreamed I circumnavigated the entire Buddhist wheel of existence in a single night...
ANCIENT RUINS, AND A GIFT FROM DEEP OCEAN:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; two dreams (2016/11/19, 2017/1/18) on dreamwork, memory & amnesia
1: Ruins in India. Fascinating but age-blurred; wish I could see the carvings better...
2: Giving presents at a party, I hand a girl a vertebra from the abyss, encrusted with jewel-like barnacles...
ANGELUNE: by Wayan; 1999/5/10 acrylic painting
The joyful animal-angel I feel myself to be in my happiest dreams.
APOCALYPSE OF THE MOON: by Carl Linkhart, 1997 or before; dream poem/painting
The far future. The moon falls to Earth. But then... the moon unfalls!
Golden light nurtures a rebirth of our dying ecology & civilization...
ARBORETUM CAT: by Wayan; 1999/4/14, an acrylic nondream landscape.
Golden Gate Park's arboretum, in San Francisco, is home to feral cats, skunks, raccoons, people...
ARCH: by Wayan; dreamed 1998/8/10, painted 1999, acrylic on wood.
I dreamed that as a kid I saw two girls making love in the bushes, awakening my own
sexual orientation. Later, I saw the bigger picture, which wasn't about sex at all...
CAUTION: SEX
ARENNA, FREED: by Wayan; 1991/11/6, a magical pastlife/flying/freedom dream.
I learn to fly from Arenna the moon-girl and Crest the dragon, in the House of Deep Memory...
ARHATS IN A DREAM: by Guan Xiu, c.891, early dream paintings
Guan Xiu, a painter in the late Tang Dynasty, dreamt that sixteen arhats
or luohans (Buddhist sort-of-saints)asked him to paint their portraits--
not their earthly forms but their (rather peculiar) astral forms. He did...
THE ARRIVAL: by Elizabeth Gibbons, 2014; a spiritual dream about dreams
I'm a priestess from an island of women; I meet an angel
who charges me to harvest all the dreams of the world...
ASK ME ANYTHING: by Wayan; 1975/1/31, a backstage dream.
It was a dark and stormy night. I was lost, till I stumbled on God
in her underground control room. God was helpful. Too helpful...
ASTEROID: by Forrest Bess, 1946; four abstractish REM-dream paintings
All the Asteroids were coming together at last to form something bigger. In church,
the dull-eyed preacher hadn't noticed. I led a blind man on toward the new...
ATMAVICTU: by Carl Jung, c.1919/12/4; portrait of dream figure in a different phase of life
Jung's ally in killing the murderous German archetype Siegfried was Atmavictu.
Here he's worn out, turning to stone, ready to manifest as a different guide...
AUTUMN OF THE ANCIENTS: by Carl Linkhart, 1995 or before; dream poem/painting
Central America. A pale sorceress has stolen the splendor of the Mayan pyramids. Is pagan
power strong enough to defy the church's promises of savation & its fears of a rumored devil?
AVERELL'S FLIGHT: by Sue Averell, 2005, paintings based on flying dreams
Action-painting cityscapes, but seen from far above--in flight. But
she keeps herself out of the picture, so you'd never guess, unless...
AWKWARD ENLIGHTENMENT: by Wayan; 2010/1/13; a dream of spiritual and practical advice
Anxious about a big party, I dream of being crowded. But
a cat-centaur in the crowd attains sudden enlightenment...
BANANA MOON: by Wayan; 1998/3/4-12/26, dream-figure painting, acrylic on wood, 3x4'
My figure-painting class here in San Francisco has a diverse student body, but not THIS diverse...
CAUTION: NUDITY
BARING THE BREAST: by Carla Young, 2010/2/27; dream painting and scene
I'm half-naked at an arty dinner party, talking to a man I really think I ought to recognize... who is he?
CAUTION: TOPLESS JUNGIAN
BATHSHEBA AT BELVEDERE: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1982 (mid-Dec?); a subtly feminist dream
Boating, we land on a cape and find a house with a Rembrandt on the wall--Bathsheba
holding a letter from David her lover, pregnant with thoughts as well as child...
CAUTION: NUDE SKETCH
THE BEACH: by Patricia Benefield; 1985 or before, a surreal painting of recurring dreams
Birds enchant me, and they long have frequented my dreams.
Sometimes, as in The Beach, I am a bird/woman...
BEAR IN THE MUSEUM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/6/7; painting in the Box of Dreams
There's a large bear wandering the museum, and somehow I feel good about it...
BEAR LADY: by Rachael Dutton, c.1981; a dream painting with four rearrangeable panels
Bear lady, bare lady,
in (or out of) a bear suit...
BEAUTY'S CHALLENGE: by Brenda Ferrimani, 1997, a flying nightmare
The beauty parlor on the edge of the canyon crawls with rattlesnakes.
I float in the air above, but even up here, knots of levitating snakes...
BERNAL ISLET IN 2250: by Wayan; 2007/4/2, an epic undream painting
My neighborhood becomes a Huck Finn Eden after global warming turns it into a tropical island...
CAUTION: NUDITY, AMBITOPIA
BERRY DANCE: by Wayan; 2009/12/17; a nightmare turns to go-go-dance
My kidnappers were desperate: no jobs. I fled them down the berry chute, to the underground
strawberry factory where engineers in go-go boots did the berry dance--and the berries...
CAUTION: STRAWBERRY FETISH
BESS: by Forrest Bess, 1947, '57, '67 & '70; five hypnogogic dreams
Bess painted images that look like abstract symbols
but actually flashed in front of him when half asleep...
THE BIOSPHERE VARIATIONS: by Wayan; 2004-, sculpture-photo-drawing-travelog-webtours:
Tour bizarre worlds most exobiologists would dismiss as hopeless for life--and meet the natives...
CAUTION: SEXY ALIENS, WEIRD CUSTOMS, EVOLUTION
BLACKGROUND: by Wayan; 2023/3/14-4/4, a booklet of improv paintings on dreamwork
Inspired by Lynda Barry, I fill a black-paged book with 20 improv paintings.
They grow into a tour of my dreamwork led my anima Silky, a nightmare...
BLOOD DANCE: by Larry Vigon; Sept. 1997; an initiatory commitment dream
A Gypsy man invites me to dance. But he cuts my arm, deep; then even his touch multiplies
my wounds. Last is a needle through my wrist. But I'm committed to the full dance now...
CAUTION: BLOOD; CURIOUSLY, NOT PAIN
BLOODLINES: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2005/7/30, 9/1 and 9/3; a compound dream-painting
A man obsessed with blood and death disturbs me, but I have to admit I share his interests...
Next the blood comes home; a surgeon wants to flay my tongue...
Next, witch-children rebel against a bloody flossing ritual and fly away on broomsticks...
BLUE SKIES: by Georganna Malloff; 1980?, painting of a slightly predictive dream.
I dreamed of a bear playing a cello concert.
The next day at a concert I was surprised to see that the cellist...
BOAT PEOPLE IN THE TUB: by Carl Linkhart, 1998 or before; dream poem/painting
I'm trying to bathe, but there are Boat People in the tub!
And my inner Grandma's spying on me, behind her fan...
A BODICE RIPPER: by Carla Young, 2010/2/22; epic (and episodic) dream with 5 paintings
Awkward newlyweds. Not a love match! Can they co-operate to save a woman from the Nazis?...
BORN IN A CAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/4/20 to 2007/8/9, a painted series of rite-of-passage dreams.
I keep dreaming of awkward but successful transitions into new life, and paint them all in one landscape...
BOX OF DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007 to 2009, a boxed set of 19 small dream-paintings
A sequence of short dreams full of creatures. They warn I'll face leukemia...
BRANCHING WOMAN: by Patricia Garfield 1973/3/9, painted by Brenda Ferrimani; a recurrent dream
I was at a dream conference and brought up a recurrent theme
that others hadn't mentioned: multiple antlerlike branchings...
BRIGHT NICHES IN THE CASTLE WALL: by Jenny Badger Sultan; summer 2003; a series of dreams.
Dreams warning of mania and paralyzing shame alternate with calm dreams of life and growth...
BUT THAT'S BESTIALITY!: by Wayan; 1994/10/29, an alt-world dream.
In a world with a dozen intelligent species, dominated by dinosaurs,
I get in trouble for publishing a kinky tale of forbidden mammal love...
CATRISE: by Wayan; 2000/2/21, a sexy flying dream; acrylic painting.
I'm an alien exchange student in Palo Alto High School. I get stared at--they wear clothes, they don't fly...
CAUTION: FELINE NUDITY
CELEBRATE BOTH: by Henry Sultan, 2005/6/26, a painting that blends two dreams
At a snake-weaving party I flirt with my anima, who tells me how the
cake fell off the roof. I think "At last we're really connecting!"...
CHART THE GROWTH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2004, painting of an incubated, oracular dream
I asked my dreams "What's my truest purpose?"
I dreamed my body was a tree, and a voice said "Chart the growth"...
CHIRICO'S DREAM: by Giorgio di Chirico; 1904, a surreal dream prefiguring his paintings
In vain I struggle with my father, with his strong arms and wary eyes... I give up... agonizing quests down darkened
streets... long shadows on columns and porticos... a crowd gathers; my father may be in danger... I want to flee...
CHRYSALIS: by Wayan; 1999 acrylic painting of two dreams, 1997/10/6 and 1997/11/8.
Ballooning over Middle Earth with a metamorphosing butterfly-girl, we drift into forbidden territory:
THE CITY, NOT LONG AFTER: by Wayan; 1998/4/22-30, acrylic cityscape of our flooded future.
What my home town will become, if you fools keep burning gas and spewing CO2...
CLIMB DOWN THE PINNACLES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, l995/12/24, a surreal dream and painting
Decision by decision, we made our way down immense rock crags. Below, I had to put out a deadly fire,
a fire as solid as wood or stone, with a white staff. What am I really trying to calm?
CLOSE THE GATE: by Emily Joy; 2004/11/19, a dream of decision.
My foxy lover teases and tempts, but I can't let him into the patio for fear he'll hurt the rabbits…
CAUTION: UNFUNNY BUNNY PUNS
CLOTHO AND THE POOL OF DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan;
a 2015 painting weaving seven dreams (2014/5/4, 6/9, 7/1 & 9/4; 2015/5/23, 6/26 & 8/25)
A portrait of Clotho, the Greek Fate who spins our life-threads, by a pool woven of my dreams from this time...
COME FLY WITH ME: by Lilian Verkins; 2012, painting of a joyful if secretive flying dream
I flew over a beautiful park where I taught others how to fly. But there were people who
I didn't want to see me flying. I stood mid-air above them, and they didn't spot me...
THE COMING DARK: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2002/3/2; a dream on one disaster averted, and one... not.
I climb down a cliff before night strands me; but in town, risky adolescent games cause a crash...
COMING TO THE JUMPING OFF PLACE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 92/5/1, painting of an escape dream
Trapped on an island, spied on and controlled, we decide to jump off
a cliff and die; but as we jump, a spirit sneaks us off be reborn...
CORPSES IN THE UPPER ROOM: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1995/1/30, a dreamlet of death/regeneration
Bodies are laid out upstairs in a dirt bed. Potatoes will sprout.
The plants won't feed on the bodies, but they will support the vines...
COUNTERPOINT: by Susan Vasiljevic; 2011, a surreal dream painting
I find myself in a church-like setting. Above me, couples in 18th century dress dance joyfully.
It provides a wonderful, ‘curious’ moment to pause and reflect... before my journey must continue.
CRESCENT CAT: by Wayan; 2011/2/17, a painting critiqued by a dream
My dream critiques a non-dream artpiece. Does it only count as dream-art
when your dream urges changes, or is creativity partly knowing when to stop?
CRUCIFERS: by Greg Hildebrandt; recurring nightmares 1969-71, painted 1971
After breaking with the Catholic Church, Greg had recurrent nightmares about its history of atrocities
and cover-ups. Out of this came a series of paintings unlike his famous book covers. This was the first...
CAUTION: MURDEROUS MOB
DAD FALLS ASLEEP AT THE PODIUM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/3/8; painting in the Box of Dreams
My father is supposed to speak, but he falls asleep onstage. I rush up to try and rouse him, but...
DAD RETURNS: by Larry Vigon; 2003/8/25; a classic dream of a revenant
I'm in a restaurant when my dad walks in. He looks great; he has
both legs again. We talk, say "I missed you", we hug lovingly...
DARE TO BE FAT!: by Wayan; spinoff picture from a 1997/8/20 dream.
I was an anorexic fox-girl, till this phrase galvanized me. Now I pump iron and eat what I like, and...
DATE GHOST: by Wayan; 1983/11/26, nondream surreal painting of a shyness fit
I tried to date a nice young butterfly but was stopped by a monster who was... my own wings?
CAUTION: UNDERAGE BUG
DEERMAN'S CHALLENGE: by Melissa McClanahan, 2002?-2007?, a recurring nightmare figure
I used to dream of this violent anthropomorphic being. At times I'd put on his deer-skull head
and become him, inflicting and inciting violence. Naming him gave me some control...
DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN TOWER: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2004/7/6, a dream of grounding
The boy and I walk a spiral trail down the mountain to the caves of tears...
DOCTOR VENTRIL: by Wayan; 1978/9/22, a nightmare where I'm the nightmare.
A doctor lures me into his office. What he turns out to be scares me less than how I defend myself...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, ARACHNOPHOBIA
DOG IN A CASSOCK: by Wayan, 1972/2/3, a comically surreal dream-poem
A master criminal is tracked down by a hound in a monk's robe
who's introduced to me as... the President of the United States?
DOLPHINS: by Larry Vigon; 2001/8/6; a dream personifying dreams?
The beach. Smoke? No, spray from hundreds of dolphins hunting. I thought
a giant wave was coming in, but it was just a trick of the light through fog...
DOOR OF ETERNITY: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2000s, a painting on dreamwork's layeredness.
"If you put an ear to the door of books and the doors of the night,
if you pay attention, you can hear the conversation of poets..."
DOPP: by Wayan; 1988/11/5, a predictive dream
DREAM: On a farm, I meet two sexy shapeshifting sisters. But mushroom clouds rise on the horizon...
NEXT DAY: at SF-MOMA, Susan Marie Dopp's paintings: shapeshifting sisters, mushroom clouds...
CAUTION: NUDITY; ESP
DRACULA'S SANDWICH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 1997/8/22, a death/rebirth nightmare-painting
Dinner with Dracula goes well, considering, except for the mayonnaise. But suddenly I'm drowning!
No one sees or hears me. Am I a ghost, am I dead or alive? And how would anyone notice?
THE DREAM: by Pierre Puvis de Chavanne, c.1882: a temptation dream?
Subtitled "In his Sleep he Saw Love, Glory and Wealth Appear to him". Is it a real pre-Freudian dream
on being tempted by three powerful allies of the Id... or just allegory? I have my doubts...
THE DREAM: dreamed by Yadwigha, painted by Henri Rousseau; 1910, collaborative dream art
Rousseau's painting of a woman on a red sofa in a glorious
jungle really was dream-based--just not his dream...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SLACKING
DREAM, 1927: by Marc Chagall, 1927 I guess! A flying dream
A woman rides draped over a giant rabbit
who somersaults through the night sky...
DREAM CAUSED BY THE FLIGHT OF A BEE AROUND A POMEGRANATE A SECOND BEFORE WAKING
by Gala Dalí 1943? painted by Salvador Dalí 1944; a supposedly instantaneous dream.
Dalí's wife Gala naps, but a bee wakes her--and her dream instantly magnifies
bee into tigers! After all, both have fur, sharp bits, black & gold stripes...
CAUTION: BREASTS; BAD DREAM THEORIES.
DREAM CLARITY, or, the Field of Psychotherapy: by Wayan; 1996/11/27, a dream on dreams
While we're making crop-circles in the field of psychotherapy, my hypnotist and I start to argue...
DREAM OF ABYSSES: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007, a dream-drawing.
Girondé dreams she's floating through the oceanic abyss...
DREAM OF THE ARCS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1994/7/5, a warning dream on power
A nun-like figure shows me three arcs; two are forms of direct power,
but the third, innermost arc can lead to secrecy and manipulation...
DREAM OF THE DANCE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2006/10/16, a dream-painting
After our trip to Turkey, I dreamed I was dancing in
a heavy black robe like those the Turkish women wore...
DREAM OF THE DANCING GODDESSES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/12/19, a dream-painting
I sneak into a dance rehearsal. Huge colorful cloth goddesses dance,
while four fat women wearing only scarves weave round them...
CAUTION: NUDITY
DREAM PATH: by Joseph Kemeny, 2012, painting of a lucid dream
Often while lucid dreaming I find myself exploring a pathway with amazing detail.
Sometimes a doorway seems to be asking me to continue on to a higher level...
DREAMSIGNS: by Joseph Kemeny, 2011?, painting of lucidity prompts
This dreamer is starting to notice certain subtle signs that all
is not normal and this may be a dream. Well, not that subtle...
THE DREAMSUIT: by Wayan; 1992/7/12, a dream on unconscious programming.
An experimental helmet knocks me out. I'm groggy, miserable, till I learn what it did to others...
DRIVER'S TEST: by Wayan; 1984/1/8, a comical Kafka dream.
It's not easy to get a California driver's license, ever since the Dept. of Motor Vehicles went Jungian...
EAGLE WOMAN: by Hosteen Hal, 1914, an old-friend-becomes-anima dream
An eagle lands near me and turns into a woman. She says "That pet eagle you had as a child?
It's me!" I'm a bit surprised. She wants a turquoise bead with a hole in it, and I look for one...
THE EDUCATION OF A DREAM: by Wayan; 1998/7/7, a dream on dreams.
A young, naive, ethereal dream gets an Animus to guide her through the crazy material plane...
CAUTION: GRATUITOUS WILLIAM SHATNER
THE EGG CRACKS: by Carl Jung, 1914/1/10-1917/2/4; meditation-images
A green monster guards the divine egg; with the right prayer, it
explodes in a fountain of mad color, half grenade, half freed jinni...
ELECTRIFIED: by Joseph Kemeny, 2011, painting of a lucid dream
I was focusing on emitting healing energy from my hands which resulted in
an "electric" flow of energy through my entire body. Later in the dream...
ELEGANTE (ELLE EST GAUNTE): by Wayan; 1983/1/8, nondream body-image painting.
Every year, as Americans get fatter, the fashion gets thinner (and I look more normal)...
EMOTIONAL PALETTE: by Wayan; 2000/3/22, an indescribable dream.
My spirit-wife and I spend our last evening together painting. Not with colors--with emotions...
ELF EYE: by Wayan; 2002/5/20, dream figure in acrylic on wood
I like the idea that a painting's a window into a world. That the window opens both ways. That eyes in paintings may be watching us.
AN ELK SHOWED ME A SIGN OF PEACE: by Georganna Malloff; Nov/Dec 1985, vision
In the Rockies, in winter, I was freezing until I found the
hot springs. In the steam rising, I saw a vision of an elk...
ENLIGHTENMENT: by Brenda Ferrimani; 1999/3/9, painting of a non-apocalyptic dream
A crowd watches from shore as a great glowing meteor descends into the sea. I fear a tsunami, but...
EVASION: by Marie-Claude Girondé, summer 2008?, a dream painting.
One pays for soaring high with solitude of the soul...
EYDIE GORMÉ'S DREAM PARTY: by Carl Linkhart, 1994 or before; dream poem/painting
The sixties. I'm at a party with Eydie Gormé and Sammy Davis Jr.
I get a laugh with a pun about para-keets/para-chutes/para-shoes...
FADING AWAY IN THE LIGHT: by Lilian Verkins; 2013, painting of nature-spirit dream?
I was a child again, sitting on a bench, watching young maidens dance.
But as I grew older, they faded away in the light of adulthood...
FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity
I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind
myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin
rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me...
FANTASTIC RIDE: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream painting.
The dreamer overflows from her egg, spills out to become a waterfall, a stampede of horses...
FARTER AND CONE: by Larry Vigon; 2002/10/5; a scatalogical skating dream
I'm in a theater waiting for a woman onstage to fart human speech;
but I have to skate away on a tipped-over traffic cone...
FIGURE DRAWING: REDHEAD SITS IN DIAMOND: by Wayan, 1999/5/12, acrylic figure-study
A sophisticated composition for a sophisticated model. Or at least seasick...
CAUTION: NUDITY, NAUSEA...
FIGURE DRAWING: STUDIO: by Wayan; 1999/5/12; acrylic figure sketch
In life drawing class, the model built a sort of green island/nest in the sea of grubby students...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
A FIRE ENTIRELY WITHOUT HEAT: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/9/11; painting in the Box of Dreams
On the anniversary of 9/11, I dreamed a friend was welding nude. In his careful hands, the fire was harmless...
FISH INTO SNAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1994/11/4; a dream painting
I'm talking to a friend while waiting in line, when a huge fish appears. It turns into an equally huge snake...
FISHERGIRL IN WATERCOLOR; OVAL: by Wayan; 1996/7/26 pencil & watercolor
Leaf and me, on our boat in the lost city, from the epic dream FISHERGIRL. My first sketch of the dream...
CAUTION: TRIBAL NUDITY
FLAMINGOS: by Wayan; 1998/3/30; nondream acrylic, 20 x 30".
Part an experiment in wild textures, part a "Where's Waldo" game to see if you'd notice my self-portrait...
FLANDERS: by Rachael Dutton, c.1981; a dream painting whose dream is lost
In the field, a huge dog whose markings form the image of
a running horse. So who am I dreaming of? Horse or hound?
FLOWER CONVERSATIONS: by Larry Vigon; 2004/1/12; a surreal psychedelic dream
Worms rappeled down from my ceiling. My friend says "I've had great talks with those creatures."
They became flying flowers exuding a gas that, if you napped, let you have wonderful conversations...
FLUID DREAM CONNECTIONS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2003/11/8 and 2007/3/14; linked dreams of pods
A pod of whales in the sky and a circle of children dressed like seed-pods both beg me to interpret them...
FOOT CREVASSE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/11; painting in the Box of Dreams
I dream my foot has a huge bloody crevasse. But I study it calmly...
THE FOREST BRIDE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1994/7/23 & 1994/12/10; opposing solstice dreams
In the midsummer dream, I'm at a wedding in the Russian forest;
in winter, I dream I hold an emaciated girl as she breathes her last...
FOUR-ARMED SINGER: by Wayan; 1996/5/16; a dream of baring your soul .
In our mutant future, a lovely horse-tailed four-armed girl sings her heart out--as clubgoers ignore her...
CAUTION: NUDE CABARET
FOX-SHEPHERDESS AND RAVEN: by Wayan; 1998 wet-on-wet acrylic of daydream, 1999/11/29.
I don't know if the fox-shepherdess ate all her sheep, or if she herded invisible and quite different things...
FRIDA'S PRISON PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 2010/11/19, a Frida Kahlo-inspired dreamlet
Frida Kahlo's battered sister Cristina dances nude--and gets jailed by the
Office of Homeland Security! Frida protests by painting her in prison...
GERMAN AT THE DOOR: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/19; painting in the Box of Dreams
A hulking, intimidating young man is at my door, with two scary dogs. Wait, is that Carl Jung?...
THE GIFTED CHILD: by Brenda Ferrimani, 2013?, a painting of an incubated dream
Previous dreamwork had made it clear my mother had betrayed me; I asked
my dreams how to protect myself from those who do not love me...
GIRAFFE CAMOUFLAGE: by Wayan; 2020/9/1, a dream of the anti-closet?
A human and a talking giraffe fall in love. But some hunters still shoot animal people.
So he camouflages her with paint. Bright paint. Now she's more visible than ever!
Not that I can criticize his eccentricities. I'm in love with a unicorn songwriter...
CAUTION: FURRYPHILIA
GOLDEN EGG: by Larry Vigon; 1984; a real, nondream, synchronistic... summoning?
I was on a London train. An ad had an image from "Jack and the Beanstalk" and I pondered
the tale--the meaning of the golden eggs. A man got on, held out a golden egg, and opened it...
GREAT GODDESS, or, SACRIFICE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1970; an epic painting of a troubling dream
I'm a priestess standing on a stone terrace, holding a ritual axe. Before me kneels a sacrifice to the Goddess...
GREEN, GREEN, SPIRIT OF THE SPRING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed 1991/2/3, 1995/8/13 and 1995/11/10
I meet a girl with a plant growing out of her head...
Someone prays to the spirit of a spring to heal me...
I watch people practice exercises with the ritual feel of voudun or candomble...
HALF-COCKED: by Larry Vigon; 2004/1/4; an alarming dream
I'm in the army, in line for a prostitute. An earlier dream cut my cock in two. It heals, but my stodgy technique
bores my assigned girl; and the cops break the legs of girls who try to leave. A riot begins--can I even escape?
CAUTION: STARTS SORDID, ENDS BRUTAL
THE HAND THAT WAKES: by Wayan; 1997; acrylic study of what makes us forget dreams.
I was painting to a sad scary song by Laurie Anderson that goes "This is the hand... the hand that takes..."
HANK AND THE BENGAL TIGER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/2/27; painting in the Box of Dreams
At a party, I go hunting for my husband and find him on a terrace facing a Bengal tiger...
HEADEGG (Black-Eyed Bird of Pain): by Wayan; 1983/10/24; acrylic painting of a headache-trance.
I was cartooning with a headache. It took over and started drawing for me...
HER LOVELY AWKWARD SYNTH, by Wayan, 2009/3/9; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #43
A musical prodigy has a gorgeous, unplayable keyboard.
But serious creativity takes a dull, regular, ergonomic instrument...
HERM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/9/8; painting in the Box of Dreams
In a domed tower, we all look up bewildered by a statue like an ancient herm, floating in mid-air...
HERON CATCHES ARROWS: by Wayan, 2023/3/31, a shamanic dream based on a pun
I'm a great blue heron with hands and human speech. A hunter fires arrows at me,
but I'm fast and can catch them. They're costly, so I demand a bargain with him...
CAUTION: ABOUT EMOTIONAL ABUSE
HERON HAREM: by Wayan; 1981/6/14, a dream with a moral.
I'm a heron working in the Civil Service. I want to blow the whistle, but then how would I support my...
CAUTION: BIRD-SLAVERY?
HOMAGE TO CAMILLE: by Wayan, spring 2003. Portrait of a half an anima
A portrait of my dream-friend Silky, using a technique learned from artist Camille Porter.
HORSE-DOG: by Wayan, 1982/2/1, a rambling, scattered but predictive dream
I cross the Mushroom Desert, meet a blue-tailed squirrel & a horse-size dog, then zombie-vampire suburbanites.
NEXT DAY: an artist sends me a flyer with a new dream painting--a huge dog whose fur-patterns depict a horse...
CAUTION: SYNCHRONICITY
HUGE OVOID SHAPE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1999/8/13 Magrittesque surreal sci-fi dream
A huge white ovoid like a tethered cloud hangs over a city street. We enter it and search for the crew...
HUMBLE THREE-EYED GIRL: by Wayan; 2008/12/30, a dream on giftedness and shame
I meet a circle of students with up to five eyes. The lone three-eyed girl
is embarrassed, indeed ashamed she's merely attained enlightenment...
I DO, WE DO: by Victor Henderson; 1982/2/16, a dream & painting on swapping faces
A surgeon persuaded me to swap my face with another man's. But I found I felt compelled
to carry on his life, not mine--to pass for him. And when I demanded my face back...
I NEVER SAW JUNG DIE: by Larry Vigon; 2003/11/28; a quasi-Jungian dream
My nonexistent brother is a bank robber about to be arrested; he says
"I never saw Jung die." Meaning not that Jung's alive, but just...
IN THE COURSE OF WORK: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream sculpture
Is that a madwoman riding a horse, or a cougar pouncing on a deer,
or are these dream-creatures wildly making love?
IO: by Wayan; 2007, revised 2015, a model of Jupiter's moon Io
I'm fascinated by Io's feverish colors and tumultuous landscape, so I sculpted
a detailed portrait and came to some tentative conclusions about what we see...
CAUTION: AMATEUR SCIENCE, OH NO!
JANE GIFFORD: dreams drawn/painted by Jane Gifford 2001-'23
From the dream-sketchbooks of Jane Gifford: odd creatures, flying,
coping with Covid, and cleaning the underworld (as one does)...
JASHA EXPLAINS DEATH: by Wayan; ca. 1974/10/1; a 10-page painted comic with recurrent dream figures
Deep Duck's interview with Jasha the Krelkin goes rogue, as she urges tossing out human habits like... death?
CAUTION: REDWOOD-SPRITE SEX, PEEING ON TREES, DRUNK DUCK
JOSÉPHINE'S DREAM: by Josephine?, painted by Angelique Benicio, 2008-'23, a flying-dream painting
At the beach, facing down a wave taller than you,
the only thing to do is levitate discreetly...
JUNG'S DRAGONS: by Carl Jung, 1917/1/17 to mid-1922; recurring dream/trance figures
Jung's visions of dragons evolve from fiery destroyers
to thieves who can be forced to give up treasure
to peacful, luminous guardians of the sacred...
KARMA AND HER SISTERS: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/27, a sexy dream that turns tragic.
One boring lonely day, I meet a cute teenage bunny who wants to play with me! But half an hour later…
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, INTERSPECIES FLIRTING, AND LOSS
KITSUNE (FOX-GIRL) BY MOONLIGHT: by Wayan; 2002/5/1 dream prompting a paint experiment
In a Japanese house I met a charming red-headed girl and had this
weird urge to scratch her pointed ears. Oh! She's a kitsune!...
KOLCHEC: by Al Davison (Jan.1977-1978) & Sara Welponer 2000, sketches of a shared dream-figure
AL repeatedly drew a bizarre, recurring dream-guide named Kolchec; years later he met
SARA, who'd painted her dream-guide, a distinctive spook named--oh, take a guess...
CAUTION: WILL DISTURB ESP SKEPTICS
LANDSCAPE FROM A DREAM: by Paul Nash; recurrent dreams 1895-9, painted summer 1937
As a child, Paul Nash dreamt he flew over rural southern England.
As an adult surrealist painter...
THE LAST WORD: by Larry Vigon; 2001/12/5; a wistful apocalyptic dream
A huge explosion knocked the earth off its orbit; it struck other planets and wrecked the whole
solar system. Where will the souls ready to reincarnate all go? Or do they even need a planet?...
LATER IN THE DAY, WE'LL CROSS OVER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/16; painting in the Box of Dreams
I know we will cross the water surrounding the heart of Jerusalem, but not yet...
LAURA: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/10/24; painting in the Box of Dreams
As we climb down the steep mountainside, clutching bushes to keep from falling,
I ask Laura "Do you want another child?"
LEAN ON ME: by Wayan; 120K; 1987, 1992. Recurring dream image..
This couple keeps appearing in my dreams--as equals, as mount and rider, as friends, as enemies, as lovers...
CAUTION: NUDITY
LET ILLNESS GO: by Wayan; 1999/6/7. Acrylic/digital painting of a meditation not a dream.
Illness is such a handy excuse when you need solitude, care, rest, or just time to think... but...
LET ME DREAM!: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream painting.
The dreamer becomes a horse, the horse becomes a unicorn.
Dreams have their own quests apart from the conscious...
LIBERTÉ: by Marie-Claude Girondé, c. 2005?, a dream painting.
"Freedom is a gift you give yourself." But it doesn't always involve seahorses or babycarriages covered in quills...
LES LICORNES: by Marie-Claude Girondé, fall 2007, a dream painting.
Three unicorns gallop out of the waves...
LILIES, DREAMER, FOX: by Wayan; 1998/5/27, acrylic on 46" plywood disk, life study.
She didn't want to be there. She closed her eyes and went elsewhere. So I painted where she went...
CAUTION: NUDITY
LION NOW, EMANCIPATION LATER: by Wayan; 2000/5/5, two dreams as my dad lay dying
We must hunt a man-eating lion to protect our village--our village full of slaves. But we
can't deal with our looming social crisis now--gotta focus on the lion in front of us..
CAUTION: SLAVERY, ILLNESS, DEATH
LITTLE BROWN RABBITS IN THE MEADOW: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/20; painting in the Box of Dreams
I visit a friend's ramshackle cottage--trees grow through the walls. But glorious meadows! Spring at last...
THE LIVERPOOL TREE: by Carl Jung, 1927/1/2; a World Tree dream painted as a mandala
In dark, grimy, rainy Liverpool, a friend shows me a park with an islet
in a pond, where a great magnolia tree shines--an oasis of light...
LOLLIGAGGING: by Angelique Benicio, betw. 2008 & 2023, a reverse-gravity dream
Embodying that upsetting feeling
when you're crawling on the ceiling...
LUCID FLIGHT TO VALHALLA: by Paul W. Coca; 1991/4/5, a lucid flying sex dream
I realized I was dreaming, and flew. My friends were skeptical and held me down a while, but
soon I had them flying too. At a party in Valhalla, I made love with a mer-angel named Ealswa...
LUCID LIVING: by Wayan; 2007/4/8, a quasi-lucid dream of the future with 9 illustrations
Honesty induces a joyful state with lucidlike powers.
So I bike across the Lake of Time, open the book of my future, and see...
CAUTION: SEXY SKETCHES FROM THE FUTURE
THE MAD UNVEILERS: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting.
The dancers, in a frenzy, stripped themselves. Not just their clothes; themselves...
MAGIC WEB: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1984, a lost dream
A colorful magic web I saw in a dream and painted; but I've been unable to trace the dream so far in my journals...
THE MAN WITH THE SNAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2002/9/3, dream of an aborted shamanic duel
I stood in the desert preparing for a contest with a man and his snake. But he cheated! Then my cat Lulu intervened...
MANDALA: by Carl Jung, c.1915; a drawing he lied about for decades
Jung, in crisis, drew a complex mandala, and then wrote about its
symbols & archetypes, always claiming a patient had drawn it...
MANDALA DURING A TIME OF WAR AND DISINTEGRATION:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; Jan-Feb 2003, painting of a dream-series
My dreams were troubled by war. So I painted them in concentric rings--lotus, fire, children, animals, and nightmares...
MANDALA OF THE EIGHT DREAMERS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/9/16, painting of a group's dreams
Our dream-group's dreams had a lot of imagery in common: circles, groups, meditation. I fused them into this piece...
MARY MCBRIDE AND THE SPIRITUAL EARTH MOVEMENT: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2011/11/26, dream of a kindred artist
I met a woman whose art (and her love for the Earth) inspired me to start a series of paintings with creatures hidden in landscapes...
THE MEDIEVAL POISONERS: by Carla Young, 2010/1/3; illustrated non-nightmare
Two medieval women poison one another. One dies in my arms; the other may just survive. Why did they...?
CAUTION: MURDERERS
MEDITATION: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007, a dream painting.
A jungle cat needs to take time out from a hard day's predation to have a quiet smoke...
MEETING CARAVAGGIO: by Phyllis Davidson, 1978, a dream earned the hard way
While painting a tribute to my hero/mentor Caravaggio, I dream we meet. He talks of his art
as we walk a dark space full of living chiaroscuro scenes we can circle, see from all angles...
THE MER BUILDING: by Wayan; 2001/2/23, a dream of a double life.
I'm a puma with a night job as a cellist. But my day job with The Architectives is the bizarre one...
MERMAID, MARE, AND SEA-STAR: by Wayan; 1983/3/23; daydream of sea-love
I was a mermaid summoning a great storm to carry my love to me--and my love was a red sea-mare...
THE MERMAID TOW: by Wayan; 1994/2/17, a rescue-fantasy dream.
I rescue some drowning kids by turning into a mermaid, but towing one girl has an unexpected effect...
MIKA'S DREAM HORSE: by Mika, August 1977, dream painting
At a dream workshop for kids in San Francisco,
Mika painted this dream-character...
MISFITS ON MARS: by Wayan; 1986/11/20, an epic dream; the climax of the dreamseries UNICORN TAG.
From the punk clubs of Frisco to the Safeways of Si Valley to the vermilion sands of Mars,
Silky the were-nightmare fights for the Misfits against every cliche in science fiction...
MOON AND FIRE RISING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed c.1994/3/10 (+ earlier dream images, one from 1969)
A dragon-woman showed me a cache of art. When I painted her face I recalled seeing it in a dream decades ago in a mirror...
CAUTION: DRAGON BREASTS
MOVING IN THE LANDSCAPES OF MY DREAMS:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 14 dreams (mostly Jan-Mar 2011) painted on one canvas
A dream urged me to paint a big landscape with cutout movable (magnetic) dream figures
and liftable flaps revealing hidden dream scenes...
MUSHROOM-SHAPED ROCK: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2000/4/14, a happy dream
I climb a huge mushroom-shaped rock rising from a hotspring and prepare to dive in...
MY DESIGN FOR THE DOME: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/5/1; a painting from an advisory dream
At first no one seems interested in my mural-design for the inside of the City Hall dome, but...
MY GLASS HEART: by Carl Linkhart, 1998 or before; dream poem/painting
My glass heart survived the rocket's blast, but I'm stranded on this barren world.
Wrapped in glamor, we climb a steep forbidding stair into a rosy, fake tomorrow...
MY PEGASUS: by Regina van der Poel; 2000/6/1, a dream of my Life Painting
I free a friend unjustly imprisoned. On the run, we encounter our Life Paintings.
Mine is a beautiful pegasus flying. But on its back is a monkey in a red suit...
MY RITUAL BEHEADING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1996/3/24, painting of a nightmare
We stood meekly in line to be beheaded. I tried to accept my fate and commended myself to God...
CAUTION: READ THE TITLE!
NAOMI, CAVES, AND LEMON TREES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1995/10/4, a joyful dream
I swim with my daughter Naomi in a desert pool amid lemon trees. She may be able to help me...
NEST, EGGS AND LEGS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; l993/9/7, a comic mystical dream
Two friends send energy through me, transforming me. Now that
my legs are detachable, I can sit comfortably on my eggs...
NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream.
At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when
our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace?
NIBBLING FRUITS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/2/3; a painting from an advisory dream
I am given a gift of "Nibbling Fruits" which only I may eat--because I've been feeding everyone but me...
NIC THE UNICORN: by Roger Martinez; 2013; a dream encounter
I met Nic as he steppd out of the elevator. We were both spooked. Nic asked if I believed in
mermaids and unicorns. I said “yes.” I asked Nic if he believed in dreamers, and after a pause...
NIGHT FLIGHT: by Catherine as told to Wayan; c. 1962, a recurrent childhood flying dream.
My friend Catherine dreamed she was a flying mare with golden hooves. But in real life, she lost them...
THE NIGHT OF CHANGE: by Wayan; 1994/2/8, a dream on the order of deep changes.
Festival night in a strange town, where, one night a year, dancing in the street transforms you into...
CAUTION: SEX TALK
NOCTURNE: by Wayan; 2023/9/20, a book of improv paintings on dreams
Inspired by Shaun Tan, I fill a black-paged photo album with 36 improv paintings.
They become a tour of my dreamworld, led by my anima Silky, a literal nightmare...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, WEIRD DREAM IDEAS
OMELET BEACH: by Wayan; 2007/1/15, a dream on how things look through your third eye
An alien beach scene--as seen through eyes that see bodies' energy fields more than surface forms...
ON MOLLY'S FOREHEAD: by Wayan, 1988/11/19, a spiritual sex dream.
A child of radicals goes wild in Rio. When we bail her out, we find she's had a strange enlightenment...
CAUTION: UNSAFE SEX
OPEN THE DOOR!: by Wayan; April 2002, acrylic bas-relief of waking fantasy.
I salvaged a door. When I painted it, a fox-woman wanted to open it and get out...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
ORACLE--SEA CHANGE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1999/5/6, dream-based painting
At the beach, wading with my fellow dreamworker Stephanie.
The waves are getting bigger--are they a hazard, or can we ride them?
THE PAINT KIDS: by Wayan; 1996/11/23, an apparent predictive dream.
Two child artists mail themselves to me in their paint kit, and
start a painting orgy that gets messy in more ways than one...
CAUTION: PEDOPHILIA, OR MAYBE PEDOPHOBIA
PANGOLIN: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1995/8/1, painting of an exploited creature
While visiting a friend in New Orleans in my dream, I saw a pangolin. I was very excited...
PEACHES AND CHERRIES: by Phyllis Davidson, 1977 and early 80s? two dreamlets of being inanimate
PEACHES: after painting a peach all day, I find I AM one, reclining on a mound of cottage cheese...
CHERRIES: after a day in Reno, I find I'm a wheel in a slot machine, whirling, coming up cherries...
PEGASUS LANDS: by Roswila; early 1990s? A collaborative haiga [picture-poem] of a dream
Haiku by Roswila of a dream of meeting a winged horse, illustrated by her late friend Janet...
PEGGY'S CAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; l998/10/26 , a nightmare plus surrealist painting.
At a party I meet a friend I thought was dead. She's become a small talking rabbit made of cake, and I...
CAUTION: UGH
PERISSA: by Wayan; 1997/9/13, a sexy dream-comic (small screen, slow loading? Illus. text)
When Perissa, an exhibitionistic centaur, bares her body in a crowded Coliseum,
she also bares a human-supremacist plot...
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM
PIGEON WITH A HEAD LIKE QUEEN VICTORIA: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2010/7/26, painting of a pest
A pigeon with a head like Queen Victoria's keeps fastening onto
my clothing with its beak, and this nagging feels familiar...
I DREAMED MY PILLS WERE TAKING ME: by Wayan; 2004/3/13, a dirty lie.
A dream that'd explain why I quit taking Western medicines--
(and why haven't you?) Only I didn't dream it. Just lived it.
THE PLACE OF SPROUTING CORN: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/1/10 & 1989/6/28, twin initiatory dreams.
I'm shown corn plants growing from skulls, and it seems like I must plant some skull-corn myself...
POIROT AND THE DICKHEADS: by Wayan; 2010/3/11, a comic antilucid dream
I'm detective Hercule Poirot, but I'm losing my case and my brain--
because my story isn't by Agatha Christie, it's a knockoff...
CAUTION: PINK DILDO HATS
PORTRAIT OF LADY DRACANTHRA: by Wayan; mid-2001, acrylic dream painting.
Among the family portraits in the hall of my ancestors was this one of a formidable old... woman, I guess.
THE POWER OF MOONLIGHT: by Carla Young, 2010/1/2; painting of a dream image
I wish I could be as body-free as my neighbor Jenna, hiking nude under the full moon...
THE POWER OF THE BUTTERFLY: by Lisa Gale Garrigues ("Cory"); winter 1997,
a dream of flying, shapeshifting and spiritual advice.
When a flood traps me in my cabin, I dream I meet
an old man who warns me "Let your butterflies go"...
PRAYER: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting.
"Our resurrection is not entirely in the future; it's also in us, it begins, it's already begun..."
THE PRIMEVAL ANIMAL and the Survival of the Earth: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1999/4/28; an epic dream
A huge spiral nautilus needs healing; its coils are coming undone, and if it dies, all on earth may die with it...
PUBLIC EVENTS vs. SNAKES FROM INDIA: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1984/6-7, a dream contrasting faiths
I meet a Mormon art-educator I know. We're so different! Then I get a call
from India. My friend tells of an erotic Hindu bas-relief of women and snakes...
PURR: by Wayan; Sept. 1981, watercolor of a dream.
I dreamed our family's black cat Persephone had to make a life-decision...
RADIANT LIGHT: DREAMING IN THE HYPOGEUM:
by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1999/5/15, 6/12 & 7/14, a painting based on 3 dreams
I'm in the Hypogeum, an ancient Maltese dream-temple. I join some women
staging a ritual; a little girl draped in a web plays the role of an insect...
RAPID TRANSIT: by Wayan; 1999 hypnogogic image; watercolor 2000/11/15.
I was just sitting, minding my own business, when these
golden wedge-birds and a tiny flying white mare divebombed me...
RAZI AND THE HOLY WINO OF SHASTA: by Wayan; 1994/9/1, a redemptive epic dream
20,000 years from now, a deer-harpist named Razi finds the Holy Wino's not quite the ruin he seems...
CAUTION: BAD PENGUINS, DEER NUDITY, RUDE DRUNK
RED HORSE: by Katherine Kean; undated, 2016? 17?; a dream demanding... solitude? wildness? more?
I was at a nice party when a wild horse burst in and insisted on taking me into a wilderness...
CAUTION: CUT-OFF ADVENTURE?
RED OCHRE, CLEAR LIGHT: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2003/4/2 & 4/21; two possibly premonitory dreams
Mt Everest is snowfree and red; in the next dream I redden a sandstone cave with ochre. I feel uneasy...
REST TOO: by Wayan; 1999/5/5. Acrylic on 12" LP; a life-sketch with a lesson.
The mysterious glyphs above the model's head are dream-language, warning me to...
CAUTION: NUDITY
REVOLUTION IS MESSY: by Emily Joy; 2006/4/26, a political dream
When whites invade, two shapeshifting Native American cubs resist architecturally...
RIDE THE GODS OF THE HAND: by Larry Vigon; 2002/6/13; an oracular dream
Predawn. The beach. A gypsy goddess rises from the waves. She says
"Begin to ride the gods of the Hand, in London." I say "What?"...
CAUTION: CRYPTIC BUT FIRM
THE ROCKS OF EDEN: by Wayan; 1982/11/28; painting-poem, summing up a life-phase, yet not a dream.
A proud angry picture-poem during a hard time, when great gifts flowed through my hands...
ROOSTERDOG: by Larry Vigon; 2003/4/22; a nested dream
In the woods I catch a beautiful rooster. It doesn't struggle; it turns into a dog.
We make friends. We sleep together in the wood; I dream we grow old together.
The dog's owner wakes me; farewell, dog! But at least the funeral has caviar...
SAINT BRIDGET: by Jenny Badger Sultan; between 1963-68, a dream on adversity's uses.
In a Scythian church, a painting says:
"Little St Bridget was bound so hard that when they released her she flew"...
THE SATURATION DIAL: by Wayan; 2015/11/7, a surreal lucid dream with a control knob!
Night. Two moons. I go lucid! Find a knob adjusting the dream's color saturation.
Dial it up--and meet ghosts of pure color, invisible til I luridified...
SECRETS OF THE TEETERING STUPA: by Carl Linkhart, 1998 or before; dream poem/painting
The past. Burma. I'm shown a stupa covered in gold leaf, and given a key
to a tunnel where they say a tooth of Buddha is encased in glass...
SHIP OF THE SUN: by Carl Jung, c.1917/1/10; trance image
An version of the Egyptian Ship of the Sun with a mutant Osiris at the helm,
in a monster-infested sea: image of the spark of consciousness in a sea of...
SHY SPHINX: by Wayan; 2009/11/27, a dream of indirect advice
I find a shy sphinx hiding in the corner of a painting in a dull art class. But maybe she's right to hide...
SILKY CROSSES THE ATLANTIC: by Wayan; dreamed 1982/8/24, painted 1994 (acrylic/ink/xerox).
After I fled my batterer, I was afraid to love--afraid I'd give up my freedom again for mere kindness...
SILKY SINGS WITH WEREWOLF BOY: by Wayan; 1996/7/10; dream figures on bedspread, 5'x7'
My anima the singing horse was encouraging a shy werewolf boy to give it a try...
CAUTION: UNCLAD HORSE CHANTEUSE
SILKY'S INVERSION: by Wayan; dreamed 2014/4/24, a surrealist dream
My anima, a black mare, is upside down, hanging on the ceiling! Rears downward.
And she's changed sex! Not a mare today, a stallion! A gay, humanophilic stallion...
CAUTION: VERY QUEER FLIRTATION
SNAKE PACKAGE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/5/27
I am given a dehydrated package of dried snake to insert in my vagina. Inside it will unfold and come to life...
CAUTION: KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
SNAKE POD TREE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/3/16, painting of a vivid dream image
In a desert, I find a tree with red purselike pods. But they all seem empty,
and I know they should each contain a vivid yellow snake...
SNAKE TREE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/10/31, a dream revisioning Eden
A woman up a tree has white flaky stuff camouflaging her.
It cracks and peels like snakeskin. What tree is this, exactly?
SO TIRED OF MY BONES: by Wayan; 1999/9/13. Ink painted on with cardboard wedges; acrylic wash.
In my drawing class it was antlers and bones and skulls, death death death till I was tired of MY bones...
O SONHO VIVIDO: by Angelique Benicio, betw. 2008-'23, a lunatic dream-painting
The red string tying that creepy puppet to
the child sitting on the moon has broken...
SPARK OF THE DIVINE: by Carla Young, 2010/2/2; painting of a brief oracular dream
A voice told me, "Human beings have a spark of the divine"...
SPEAKING ABOUT ART WITH THE AFRICAN BEINGS:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2002/1/19, a dream-painting of a dream about dream-painting!
I'm teaching an art class full of strange masklike beings. We debate art
as spontaneous process, versus art as planned product...
SPIRIT FACE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/4/25 dream of a huge art project
I'm at the beach, collecting stones to make a gigantic face viewable only from the air...
SPLASH!: by Wayan; 12" acrylic painting, late 2002, from 1983/1/16 dream.
While I study how humans went extinct, my
daughter happily splashes in the sea...
SQUIGGLE BIRD: by Wayan; 480 x 640, 1997.
Just an abstract birdlike acrylic squiggle I liked. Sorry, no story...
SUBMERGED IN THE WAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/8/3, a comic nightmare
I'm holding a pornographic novel, trying to keep it dry, as huge waves
flood the room. The book and I are both going to get drenched...
SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF: by John Anster Fitzgerald, 1857?, dream painting
In bed asleep, the dreamer discovers this seemingly empty room hosts a
fairy ball, full of luminous half-seen beings serenaded by a monstrous band...
SUMMONING SHADOW: by Jo Equinity; 2006. Three meditative paintings apparently cause a miracle.
I had to sell my horse Shadow, but I missed him so much I painted him. As I finished, a strange impulse led me...
SUN SINKS BENEATH THE EARTH--REMAINS OF MEN AND WOMEN:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1997, a collage on a dream-idea
A phrase from a dream, "the remains of men and women," led to this image
of a black sun in the underworld amid strata of time and the psyche...
SURRENDER TO THE WHITE BUFFALO: by Kathleen Sullivan, 1970s?; a nightmare turned shamanic
A gigantic herd of buffalo stampede toward me. I panic, then surrender in peace to what is surely my death...
SUSPENSE ABOVE THE POOL: by Carl Linkhart, 1990 or before; dream poem/painting
The past. Summer. Sunset. I want to sneak in a final
swim--in someone else's forbidden backyard pool...
TELEPATH TREES: by Wayan; 1993/9/11, a how-the-other-half-lives dream with 7 pics
I dream Edward Abbey shows me a secret grove of telepath trees.
That night, in my dreams inside my dream, they meet me...
THIEF OF DREAMS: by Wayan; 1996/11/29, a sexy soul-swap dream; a 22-page comic (or text w/pics)
I was a mermaid trying to find Count Coyote's stolen dreams, so I could marry my human girlfriend...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, LESBIAN MARRIAGE, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
THIRTEEN PEACE SIGNS IN A TIME OF WAR: by Wayan; early 2002, acrylic sgraffito on wood.
The animal goddess of peace, stubbornly raising her sign, my sign, as you all slide into your nice holy war...
THREE HORSE MARSH: by Wayan; 1983/9/27. Acrylic triptych, each panel 18 x 24", group ca. 2x5'
Dream-inspired landscape with herons and wild horses in a vaguely Japanese style...
TIGER'S EYE CAVE: by Brian MacGregor, 2002-2003?, a predictive dream
I dreamed of this tree growing out of a cave-mouth. Years later, in Guatemala, I
was shocked to encounter my dream. That tree and that cave were all too surreal...
TONY DIGS THE RED EARTH: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/2/23; painting in the Box of Dreams
It's Thanksgiving but my brother won't come in; he's digging up red earth. In our family he always digs up...
TREE OF LIGHT: by Carl Jung, mid-Nov. 1922; a vision of the World Tree
The cosmic egg nests in the branches of the tree of life, glowing with
Muspel-fire. But the tree must periodically burn to regenerate life...
THE TUBA MAN: by Wayan; 1982/7/8, a career-advice dream; watercolor sketch.
Tuba Man plays from the top of a tower, even when Loveless Man opens fire; for music is life to him...
THE 1200-STEP PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1987/12/17, an illustrated dreamtale.
I'm climbing a tower, as my dad, Apollo, drunk, throws bottles at me from the top, breaking bones...
CAUTION: DENIAL ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
TWO-FACED LAPIS AND THE MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1992/7/6, a distractable dream
I'm shown a mysterious two-faced carving;
I shush loud people disturbing my therapy;
I'm told of a documentary on the archetypal mother...
TWO GORILLAS IN THE FIELD: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/12/5; painting in the Box of Dreams
I see two gorillas in the field. One waves at me and approaches. I feel excited but a little scared...
TWO WITCHES: by Melissa McClanahan, 2013/9/8, a short painted dream-comic
Two witches, maiden and crone, ride a flying monster made of two magically fused trolls.
But I know somehow that the two are really just aspects of a single powerful sorceress...
RED-TAILED UNICORN: by Wayan; Sept. 1971?, a childhood icon in acrylic.
One of my first tries with paint--part Tibetan, part medieval, part hippie, part Navaho...
UNICORN ROUND: by Wayan; 2000/9/18, nondream; acrylic on a vinyl record.
Yellow fireflies circling round the horn of a reclining red unicorn, in the evening...
UTOPIA: by Wayan; 37 p, 3.9 MB, 2007/5/9, a painted improv exploring... wishes?
An improvised painting-series exploring my obsession for Utopia--and your deafening silence...
CAUTION: IDEAS, FURRY NUDITY, THAT GOSH-DARN MODERN ABSTRACT ART
THE VEGETABLES OF SHADOW: by Wayan; 1999/10/4. Nondream surrealist art technique.
Make silhouettes of your beloved vegetables; then listen to the spaces between...
CAUTION: LEWD SQUASH
THE VERDURE IS ACCOMPLISHED: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed 1996/4/21 and 5/11
A dream voice announced "The verdure is accomplished." Green is a healing color for me...
In the next dream we sat round a green pool, talking of healing. But the snails troubled me...
VERITY'S WINGS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/8/21; painting in the Box of Dreams
My friend Verity's given a beautiful set of wings. I'm envious until I consider what angel wings imply...
VIEWFINDER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/5/31, a dream-ritual declined
A friend explained she planned to be a human viewfinder, bendng into
an arch for a male spirit to dive through. I didn't want to risk it...
THE VISION: by Robert Herrick; 1648, an eroti-political dream poem
I dreamt Anacreon the poet reeled with drink and lust--and I am wild and wanton like to him...
VISIONS UPSTAIRS: by Wayan, 2007/1/15, an ero-spiritual dream-comic
Junk in the attic? Treasures! The cat musicians shift from cartoons to life as I ascend,
til in the ultimate attic--the astral beach--I meet a cattaur made of pure (de)light...
CAUTION: SEX-CRAZED CATS, NEW AGE FINALE
WALL TO WALL WATER: by Larry Vigon; 2003/3/18; a surreal, beautiful dreamlet
The home we were to stay in was on fire. The next had a living room
that was shallow water, wall to wall, where turquoise fish swam...
WARM MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2001/3/24, 3/29, 3/30 & 4/1; dreams
I dream my mother takes over caring for my sick daughter; I feel pushed aside.
When I wake, I try to paint a more positive image of mothering.
For a week, dream after dream has opportunities for patience and letting go of jealousy...
WATERFALL: by Wayan; 1984/12/14, ink blown up via Xerox, with acrylic wash; nondream.
A stylized waterfall--a distillation of all those childhood summers camping in Yosemite...
WEAVING MATS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/15; a predictive dream from the Box of Dreams
In a camp, women wove mats. I was tempted to try. But it was
months before I learned what they'd really been weaving..
WEREWOLF TRANSFERENCE: by Larry Vigon; fall 1997?; a nightmare reversed by courage
Chased by the old movie Wolfman, I get tired of fear and turn on the monster. I take on his wolfness!
But in me, wolf-nature manifests differently--as a human body with a calm, happy wolf's head...
WHALE SPEAKS: by Brenda Ferrimani; dreamed 2014? An epic dream painting.
I dreamed I was a whale swimming against a Christian ebb tide,
trying to lead humans to a cleaner spiritual current...
CAUTION: HARD ON AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?: by Carla Young, 2010/3/16; painting of a political dream pun
My friend's ignorant of our local Congressional race. I loathe Pombo
and like his rival McNerney, but can't pronounce his name right...
WHAT LIES BENEATH: by Susan Vasiljevic; undated, 2012? 13?, a feminist nightmare-painting
A male real estate agent knocked on the door. The house was full of sleeping crocodiles.
She fled through the house, trying not to rouse the attention of either sort of predator...
WHEN BLOOD FLOWS, THE DANGER IS PAST
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/3/23 & 2000/4/19, twin dreams of carved women
A woman is knifed by the sea. I cradle her, but she's probably dying...
For my intitiation-ordeal, I have to cut designs in my own back! I can't reach, so...
WHITE-HAIRED WOMEN: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2002/5/4, a dream painting
I'm in a ring of seven white-haired women, our arms all interlocking.
When I woke I had fun working out the pattern of those interlinked arms...
WHITE HORSES, FIVE TALENTS: by Regina van der Poel; 1999/10/29, a dream equinifying talents
I meet a man in a box. A mob wants to attack him. But five white horses defend him! Well, one's
really a unicorn. I know each horse is a talent, but only recall one when I wake: clairvoyance...
THE WHITE SNAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1998/4/1, a dream painting
DAY: we're preparing for a trip to Malta to see ancient sites.
DREAM: Hiking, I discover a gigantic white snake. It feels like a good omen...
A WIFE OR A GHOST: by Justin Masi; 2014? a surreal dream-painting-prose-poem on grief
My sister's fiancé Billy died a year ago. I didn't realize how deep the grief ran till I dreamed...
THE WHITE WAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/8/3, a comic nightmare
I'm holding a pornographic novel, trying to keep it dry, as huge waves
flood the room. The book and I are both going to get drenched...
WHO KNOWS WHO'S YOUR MATE? 1986/12/21, ink, Xerox, acrylic wash; a nondream picture-poem
Seeking a mate? Mutual attraction and having much in common aren't enough--
it's equally vital to learn what you don't have in common...
WHO, ME?: by Wayan; 2002. Acrylic of dream figure.
Some shy folks don't even know they're dragons....
WILL I BE BITTEN?: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/15; a predictive dream from the Box of Dreams
A friend who's fought lymphoma invites me to sleep in a cave, but I fear a rattlesnake will bite me...
WINDFALLS IN EDEN: by Wayan, 2000/3/30, a religio-politic dream.
I'm a part-owner of Eden, harvesting windfalls.
But a renter says his Landlord promised him all the apples...
WINTER DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; winter 2004/2005, a painted series of color-dreams.
After teaching a class on color, I had a series of vivid dreams
about color, and tried fusing them into one painting...
WINTER SNAIL: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1994/1/22, twin dreams of renewal fuse in a painting
At the beach, a barrel of huge snails somehow heal my legs.
In the next dream, back on the beach, I give birth to our son...
WOLVES SITTING IN A TREE: by Sergei Pankejeff; winter 1888 or '89, a nightmare Freud made famous
When I was very small I dreamt a pack of wolves climbed the tree outside my window and
somehow got it open. Freud told me I must have seen my parents having sex doggy style...
CAUTION: REALLY, DR. FREUD?
A WORK OF ART: by Carla Young, early 1970s; dream painting and story
I'm to be beheaded. Guards chant "It's important to enjoy what you're doing."
I know my spilled blood will create a work of art...


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