In what is probably my earliest dream memory, possibly dating back to my third year, a hideous witch straight out of the Brothers Grimm was chasing me.

I fled down a sunny, tree-lined street and finally reached the safety of my grandparents' kitchen. The witch stood outside the windows making horrible grimaces, but she could no longer harm me. I was safe.

Then, as sunlight poured into the kitchen, I melted brightly colored crayons over an old-fashioned black stove (which did not exist in real life). I was trying to make them into a ball.

In real life, I had once seen a child with such a ball and had loved the swirling, subtle mixture of colors. A rich ochre predominated, with other hues flowing through it. I often tried to make such a ball for myself but never succeeded because I could not get the crayons to melt properly. It was, on a child's level, a fascination with alchemy.

As an adult, I see this episode with the crayons as a symbol for observing hundreds of dreams and then fusing the brightly colored pigments into one integrated whole.

SOURCE: Journey of a Dream Animal by Kathleen Jenks (1975), p.4

EDITOR'S NOTE

Well... I can't argue with that interpretation! Because here I am, having built the World Dream Bank, crosslinking thousands of dreams... and what did I do as a little kid? I made bright-colored worms of plasticine, and wove them into big rainbowish tangles much like Jenks's dream-ball.

Once, an older kid saw one of these polychrome knots with about a hundred strands, and, without knowing I'd made it, said, "Whoever did that is TWISTED." Where I saw beauty and complexity, he just saw knots...

--Chris Wayan

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