Drawing on the Dream: Finding My Way by Art - Softcover

Kester, Denise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1940468590 ISBN 13: 9781940468594

Publisher: White Cloud Pr, 2017

Synopsis

How does a twenty-first-century woman living in rural southern Oregon enter the spiritual realm of the Dreamtime and what impact does it have on her life? Denise Kester is an artist and art teacher whose inner dream life is populated by a host of profound characters (brown bears, black crows, blue monkeys, sea turtles, and rabbits among others) who guide Denise through a difficult year of artistic creation as she stares down at a deadline for an important exhibit. Drawing on the Dream is part instruction for artists but even more a profound illumination on the way of the artist. The book includes Kester's brilliant monoprints in all stages of process to completion and the stories or poetry that inspired or illuminate the work. Kester writes about the struggles and the triumphs that occur as the deadline approaches. She asks the question “do I make the art or does the art make me?”

In her Foreword, bestselling author Jean Houston (Jump Time, The Possible Human observes: “As you read, see, and enjoy the riches contained in this book you too may discover, with such wonder and astonishment, that the dreamtime lives within you. For you are in the presence of Denise Kester who has tapped into the source of creativity and thus, is herself, a Source-rer.”

About this title

About the Authors

Denise Kester is a working studio artist who has been exhibiting her work for over thirty years. She is a sought after teacher of printmaking, painting and art process, including book making, collage, and assemblage art, presenting workshops and classes in Washington, California, Georgia, New York, and Oregon. She lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Jean Houston, Ph.D., scholar, philosopher and researcher in Human Capacities, is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is long regarded as one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. Dr. Houston is noted for her ability to combine a deep knowledge of history, culture, new science, spirituality and human development into her teaching. She is known for her inter-disciplinary perspective delivered in inspirational and humorous keynote addresses. She is author of 26 books including Jump Time and The Possible Human.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Drawing On The Dream"Revolution only needs good dreamers who remember their dreams." Tennessee WilliamsAs a young child I would periodically have a dream that would come true. I would watch what I had seen in a dream play out before my eyes. These precognitive dreams did not foretell anything extraordinary. They were life situations that became illuminated in my mind. They were a mystery that I couldn't explain, and they set me apart from my family, making me an observer at a young age. These dream experiences awakened me to the possibility that there is more to life than the ordinary day-to-day reality that I observed as a child growing up in Athens, Georgia. I have been writing, painting, and drawing from my dreams since I was nine years old. I began illustrating my dream images to help me understand my dreams on a deeper level. Interpreting my dreams with art and writing have been important tools for helping me integrate the dream message into my daily life more completely. I don’t know why we dream, but I believe that dreams are one way that my heart and soul and my unconscious mind are trying to communicate with me. Dreams can answer big questions and solve problems. There are many accounts throughout history of problems being solved or ideas coming to people in dreams. Albert Einstein was able to formulate his theory of relativity after a vivid dream of downhill racing reaching the speed of light, and at that moment, the stars in his dream changed their appearance in relation to him, giving him the idea upon which he formulated his theory.Paul McCartney composed the entire melody for a song in a dream in 1965. Upon awakening he quickly played the song on the piano. He worried that he was replicating someone else’s work and for a month continued to ask if anyone recognized the piece of music. Finally when no one claimed the melody John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics to the melody creating the song we know as “Yesterday”. The novelist Stephen King had many ideas for his books come to him in his dreams. King said, “I’ve always used dreams the way you’d use mirrors to look at something you couldn’t see head on.”Dreams can be about what we love and desire, what we want and what we need. I think the information that comes to light in a dream is important for me even when it reveals my fears. I believe that when a dream is frightening, it is my subconscious trying to get my attention in a very exaggerated way. It usually means that I need to attend to something that I have been ignoring. Before going to sleep at night I often ask my dreams for help with something I am having difficulty with or a problem I want to solve. Years ago when I first began teaching I would let students find their own way with the process of printmaking. I stayed with the technical how to’s and facts about inks, rollers, paper, the press and so on. I had a student that was almost paralyzed by her inner judge and critic, keeping her from being able to make a mark on a blank plate for fear of making a mistake. I let her struggle hoping she would break through but she didn’t. I knew what I wanted to say to her but I held back. The truth is that I doubted my own ability to teach what my heart knew about art making. I knew how to let go of the critic, to breathe, to come at the work sideways, I knew about intention and barriers and I knew that what I was reaching for was reaching for me but It hadn’t yet become part of what I now teach openly. That night I asked my dreams for clarity with how best to help her. I dreamed I was watching a ceremony in a small chapel. A holy woman stopped in front of me and said, "There are three things for you to remember: Stay in your heart and take action from there; Remember who you really are; and Trust your instincts." Messages are not often this clear for me in a dream, but when they are, I do my best to listen and take action on the information I receive.The next day I trusted my instincts to share with my student what I knew about getting around the paralyzing inner critic. I stayed in my heart with what and how I taught. And I remembered that I am an Artist and a Teacher. The student had great success creating something for herself that was truly profound. She told me that her inner critic voice expected her to be a Picasso every time she made a mark. The fear of failure kept her from doing her art. I said to her “the world already has a Picasso, what the world really needs is you.” I am grateful to this student and to my dream for helping me be a better teacher. I also created a piece of art that is true to the dream. It is my way of showing my gratitude and honoring the dream and the dream information. I have come to understand that when I take the time to write the dream down, to draw the dream and to talk about the dream, the dream becomes manifested though my art and it becomes more real to me and in my life it becomes a dream come true. The Healer Of The DreamAs I draw these images, ideas, and feelings, not only do I have a clearer understanding of my dream, I am also strengthening my connection to Dream Power. Dream Power is a term I first read about in Dr. Ann Faraday’s book by the same title. She used it to describe the wisdom source in dreams. I have been keeping a dream journal and drawing from my dreams for over forty years and I know that there is a wisdom source and power in dreams. Certainly some dreams more than others. In my experience some dreams deal with day-to-day life while others are rich with myth and metaphor and refer to something bigger going on. These dreams are important dreams and require more attention. I see them as gifts from the universe. I don’t know how it works; I just know that it does work. This connection to dreaming has always been important to me. The more I take note of my dreams, the more I am rewarded with useful clues to my personal life and the world around me. When I draw or paint my dreams, the art reveals to me a larger, more universal story. The art connects me to something bigger that is called The Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the creation of the world, and its great stories. The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge, from which comes the laws of existence. According to Aboriginal belief, all life as it is today -- Human, Animal, Bird and Fish, are all part of one vast, unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.*The Dreamtime takes place in the dream-place which is everywhere and nowhere and always and never. It occurs in a time beyond time. Making art from my dreams is my way of acknowledging and building a trust with Dream Power. I believe this trust allows the flow of information to continue from Dreamtime. I am interested in the idea of the collective consciousness and unconsciousness in the form of a Dreamtime which to me is connected to the universal life force of all things. In Hindu mythology there is a story of Indra’s Net. Imagine a jeweled spider’s web where at every thread junction there is a jewel that is multifaceted and reflecting all of the other jewels, and connecting to all of the jewels in the web, or net. Like the Dreamtime, Indra’s Net describes the interconnectedness of the universe. This concept is also known as The Dream or the Big Dream, or the Universal Dream. By whatever name you call it, I am fascinated by the idea of it, and it is from here that I attempt to draw when I create. Drawing from the dream and drawing on the dream is the best way for me to describe it without getting into quantum physics. I am an artist, not a physicist. But I do understand that on an atomic level everything is connected and in relationship.

Edition details

• Publisher: White Cloud Pr
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1940468590
• ISBN 13: 9781940468594
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 111