A Dream-Gallery Worker Finds Heartache And Solace

(Wednesday, September 13, 2023) waning crescent Virgo / tarot Devil

When I wake up from this dream and ponder, I realize it is taking place at the IASD and I am a gallery volunteer. There is a room packed full of artwork in a lower level of the hotel. At the reception area on the floor above the storage room, I see a man standing in front of an empty steel bookcase (like the one I bought a decade ago from CB2 that holds all of Chris’ record albums).

The man has two framed photographs and he is mounting them on the wall directly behind the bookcase. I ask a staffer if we are permitted to attach art to the walls and she says yes. That makes me and other gallery workers incredibly excited. In waking life, we have never been able to add artwork onto hotel walls, only to easels. We go up and down the stairs and grab hundreds of paintings, sculptures and photographs. We start quickly mounting them all around the hotel, not just in one gallery room.

My own submission is in the back of my mind. It is a lovely collage-style, two-dimensional piece that I created inside an old mirror frame from my real-life twenties and thirties. I keep envisioning it in my mind’s eye and finally decide to go get it. I think viewers will find it to be beautiful. But when I locate the frame in the art storage room, the two-dimensional pieces have muted completely. The colors are gone, aged from sunlight. This makes me incredibly sad. Broken-hearted. My art means nothing now. It is dead.

After I let my grief subside a bit, I find new solace. There is a large clay sculpture outdoors, near a set of stone stairs. A younger woman made it, and I like her inspiration. She created a playful, Mexican folk-art style ceramic figure, about four feet tall. In spite of the weight of such a large piece, I am able to embrace and lift the female luminary, carry her carefully up the rocky stairs, past a large outdoor terrace, and deliver her to the art exhibit.

Day notes:

Later in the day the dream bubbles up. I feel the experience of the dream, and notice more details of different scenes. This has been happening quite often lately.

Peter mentioned the IASD conference on Monday night. It will be at Kerkrade, The Netherlands, but I doubt I can afford that trip. I am no longer a member of the IASD as I started pinching my pennies when I lost my job in January. And it would be too difficult to take a large ceramic piece on an airplane anyway.

This seems to be about my transition from my job (creating 2D design work) to working with 3D ceramics. A partial answer to my dream incubation?

Yesterday Oona begged to see Granga so Cullan brought her for a visit on our front porch. She liked my little bunny and dove garden sculptures. I know Wyn has a creative, theatrical side but I don’t know about Oona yet. She loved walking up and down the stairs to the porch.

I am reading James Hillman’s book “The Soul’s Guide.” He says a unique soul guides each of us from birth (daimon, genius, guardian angel, heart, spirit, soul). The fundamental essence of our individuality.