House With No Glue

This is a fabulous print by Donna Fenstermaker who bases all of her paintings and artworks on dreams that she has had:

I have, for many years, been recording and using my dreams in my art. The work represents an
integration of my art and my dreams: writing down the stories of them, then making drawings,
books, prints, paintings or sculptures about them.

The drawings in the books and subsequent pieces are not illustrations but a way of telling
another aspect of the dream. I have done dream drawings from which I’ve continued and done more
than 40 subsequent drawings. Each drawing is a continuation of the original image and also a
deepening of the impact and meaning. It has a relationship to the earlier image discovered in
the dream work and also it has its own story to tell…

Donna Fenstermaker

This particular painting, she tells us, came from a series of dreams she had when a very good friend to her was dying. She says that he was central to her group of friends; he was the glue that heald them together. I find this symbolism very effective and the painting, with this added piece of information is so powerful. I hope you enjoy her work.

‘The Bridge’ – Iain Banks – Carriage Stand-Off

More of my thoughts on the book ‘the Bridge’ by Iain Banks.

In the second part of the book ‘Metamorphosis’, we begin with chapter one. It is a dream sequence, and its seeming irrelevance to the introduction to the book threw me for a while. However upon reading and reading I have found correlation between this and the initial crash scene. The first person, who’s identity we are not yet sure of, drives a carriage which is forced to a stop when, on the single track road they travel, a similar carriage meets them.

I believe that this scene is a symbol for the crash scene which causes the main character to fall into a coma. The idea of the carriage’s headlights startling the driver, white horses which relate to the white Jaguar, the feeling’s of utter terror that the driver has… they all seem to relate.

There are other ideas which I find quite powerful included in this scene. The man in the other carriage, in dream-like surreality, copies the personas every move however he does not look the same and does not speak the same language as him. I think that this symbolises the persona looking into his own personality, which because of the coma, he cannot fully remember, but has a terrifying feeling of familiarity with which he cannot explain, symbolised in the mirrored actions of this man: ‘Sir! If you please, go-” I halted. The other driver had spoken – and stopped speaking – just at the moment I had started, and then stopped.”

There is also a feeling of frustration and anger from the persona, as well as the threat of violence shown by the gun, which gives the idea of anger at being unable to relate to this foreign character. There is a suggestion that in trying to remember who he is there is the same kind of frustration and misunderstanding.

This scene also contains some fantastic descriptions which I think are very important because dreams are very visual things:

“The last tendrils of the mist stroked past the gleaming flanks of the horses and the strapped sides of the carriage like nebulous fingers reluctant to let us go. Above, the stars shone”

Wow, this description leaves the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. If there’s a reason to read this book, there it is!

Overall Banks has written a fantastic dream sequence which I think relates perfectly the kind of surreal ideas which fall into one another in a dream.

[to buy the book click here] [to read more on 'the bridge' click here]

The World’s View on Dreams

Some people have some fantastic things to say about dreams and the dream-world. Here are just a few I have found:

“Dreams are free, so free your dreams.” Astrid Alauda

“When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” Dom Helder Camara

“All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.” Elias Canetti

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Gloria Steinem

“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” Goethe

“Dreams are free therapy. Consult your inner Freud.” Grey Livingston

“Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare.”H.F. Hedge

“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.” Marian Wright Edelman

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” Marsha Norman

“Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.” Virginia Woolf

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.” William Dement

“Dreams are answers to questions we haven’t yet figured out how to ask.” X Files

“A man’s dreams are an index to his greatness.” Zadok Rabinowitz

What do dreams mean to you?

‘The Bridge’ – Iain Banks – Coma

Coma is the first chapter of the book and is the description of the main character’s mental reaction to a crash where he is pushed into a coma. Here’s how it begins:

“Trapped. Crushed. Weight coming from all directions, entangled in the wreckage (you have to become one with the machine). Please no fire, no fire. Shit. This hurts. Bloody bridge; own fault (yes, bloody bridge, right colour; see the bridge, see the man drive the car, see the man not see the other car, see the big CRASH, see the bone-broken man bleed; blood colour of the bridge. Oh well own fault. Idiot). Please no fire. Blood red. Red blood. See the man bleed, see the car leak; radiator red, blood red, blood like red oil. Pump still working – shit, i said shit this hurts – pump still working but the fluid leaking out all over the place. Probably get hit from behind now and serve me right, but at least no fire, yet anyway; how long, I wonder how long since? Cars; police cars (jam sandwiches) jam sandwich; me am di jam in di sandwich car am di sandwich. See the man bleed. Own fault. Pray nobody else hurt (no don’t pray; atheist, remember that, always swore [mother: "no need to use that sort of language"] always swore you’d be the atheist in the fox hole well your time has come lad because you’re leaking away onto the grey-pink road and a fire might start and you might be dying anyway, and you might get hit up the backside by another car if anybody else is staring stupefied at that damn bridge so if you’re going to start praying now would seem like quite a reasonable time but ahshit and whatthehell – CHRISTTHISHURTS! [OK; used only as a swear-word, nothing serious, honest; swear to God.] OK: see you God, yer a busturt, so ye are.) That’s telling them all, kid. What were those letters? MG; VS; and me, 233 FS. But what about – ? Where – ? Who – ? Oh shit, I’ve forgotten my name. This happened once at a party; drunk and stoned and stood up too quick, but this it’s different (and how come I remember forgetting that time and can’t remember my name now? This sounds serious. I don’t like this. Get me out of this.)

I see chasm in the rain forest, bridge of creepers, and a river far below; a big white car (me?) comes leaping along the trail, pounding onto the bridge; white it is (is this me?, an albino jaguar, racing across the swaying bridge (what am I seeing? Where is this? Is this what really happened?) long flinging strides, white death (should be black but I’ve got a negative attitude, ha ha) tearing across the bridge-

It’s stopped. The scene whitens, holes appear in it; a film burning through (fire!) trapped in the gate (jaguar in the gate?); stopped, the scene melts, the seen scene disintegrate (see the seen scene disintegrate); nothing stands too-close enquiry. White screen left.”

I absolutely love this. It was difficult to read for me at first but looking back over it you realise just how fantastically well written it is. It shows perfectly the fragmentation of a mind in serious pain, with the short sentences, mismatched train of thought and slow loss of perception of reality. Bank’s shows well how this man’s mind tries to deal with the pain by injecting humour into his thought process (jam sandwiches and reference to negative attitude).

Another very interesting thing to notice is that the man is driving a white Jaguar. Bank’s has very cleverly shown this man’s loss of consciousness by including this detail in a dream-like scene of a big-cat leaping across the bridge… a symbol of his car travelling along the bridge before the crash.

Also, the idea of the photographic film disintigrating is a very interesting one, showing a visual representation of his thoughts disintegrating with the increasing pain caused by the fire.

Let me know what ideas you got from this?

[to buy the book click here]

Dreams – Modelling Agency

Another very vivid dream which makes little sense to me.

Its begins as I am sitting in my English class, only the tables are set out different and there are more people. The teacher announces to us that the lesson will be very different and more relaxing than usual. Another man appears and it seems to be up to him to take the class. He hands out sheets of paper to some people but not to others. He says “stand in the middle of the floor if you think you are different from the others”. I go to stand and then realise that I’m wrapped in a duvet and naked underneath. I look to him in alarm and whisper I’m naked in utter shock. He adds: “and those who are naked.” Suddenly I’m really embarrassed but I don’t get up. Everyone without a sheet of paper is standing in the middle of the floor but then the teacher goes round each of the people left and tells them something about them that is different from all the people around and eventually everyone is standing in the middle of the floor except me.

I look in anguish to my teacher and he asks me what’s wrong. I tell him I’m not wearing anything and he looks confused.

I just have to sit out the class and it appears to turn into something to do with drama. People are all given their own parts and a play goes on while I sit away from it all. Then, even later it appears that I’m in a modelling agency, everyone is walking around looking gorgeous while I sit wishing I had something nice to wear. Then we’re given a challenge to make a dress from flowers and materials we’re given. I manage, holding my duvet around me to make something but I end up looking ridiculous against all of these models. I remember the man in charge of the modelling agency asking me what I’m wearing in a voice that portrays his disgust. I tell him I was just experimenting with the fabrics and he walks away. I really do look rediculous.

Then I wake up.

Dreams – The Spiders

Not quite your typical spider dream… I wasn’t chased by them.

I was in the bathroom upstairs and my mum and dad were running around trying to catch a huge spider and then another one appears. They are really huge, like tarantula size. Black, with white stripes. I walk through to my sisters room, and she’s just about to walk into the bathroom. Since she’s scared of spiders I shout at her to not go in and then she says, through tears “there’s a huge spider in my room”. I walk into her room and try to catch it but I cant and it runs away where I can’t find it.

I then walk downstairs and there’s 2 spiders running around the dining room table. They are smaller in body with bigger legs, black and red. I go and get a few glasses to catch them in, I manage to catch one but the other one dissapears. My cleaner’s there and she lifts one of the glasses to see what it is. Suddenly one of the spiders has turned into a tortoise.

I can’t remember anything else. Weird.

Fighting Nightmares – Part Two

In response to my last post on fighting nightmares I received a very interesting comment from a woman called Jackie.

She said that she has suffered from nightmares all of her life, meaning that she has to avoid even small things like watching scary movies or tv programs, thrilling books and haunted houses. She, like me, definitely feels that nightmares are worse as children because that clear line which defines the difference between reality and the imagination to an adult is less vivid to a child.

She believes that there are a few more ideas for helping with nightmares than the ones that I outlined. She thinks that reliving a nightmare before sleeping is too difficult and can, instead of helping, cause detrimental effects on the nights sleep. She suggested more a process of thinking positive and happy thoughts while beginning to drift off.

She made another practical and very interesting suggestion which she says has helped her through nightmares: to put a collection of night-lights and lamps around the room where you sleep so that you can have a greater feeling of control when you wake up from a nightmare. Having a torch at hand is also helpful. I hope these suggestions help.

Thanks should go to Jackie, whose art I think is fantastic and can be found here. The painting at the top of the page is called “Mocha Mist” and its my favourite of her artworks. What’s yours?