Author: Denise

I am a sculptor of clay animals and those luminous hybrid creatures that sometimes appear in our dreams, if we are lucky and if we are paying attention. The slow process of hand-building something from clay can really deepen the visitation of a dream. I have faithfully tended these wondrous images, transcribing them to journals since I was in my early 20s.
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Waking Dream: Sweet Corn Grandmother

(Saturday, August 8, 2015)

I am pulling weeds from cracks in the driveway, thinking of my recent dream of my grandmother. I remember roaming the wild hills on her farm as a child, intensely curious about every plant that had the resilience to thrive in the hot sand prairie. My favorite was the purple spiderwort, a diminutive version of the native plant I have in my garden. But every plant was beautiful to me, even though in those days all were considered weeds.

Suddenly, standing on the asphalt, the fresh aroma of sweet corn fills my senses. Just as quickly it passes. Is the spirit of my grandmother alerting me to her presence? Sweet corn and melons (“mushmelons” she called them) were the two crops she raised on the farm.

Claudia has shared stories of smelling perfume and sensing spirits. Until now I have not had that experience.

A little later in the day a huge young Swainson’s hawk flies past Chris and me, landing in a pine tree about thirty feet away. Hawk is a messenger from the dimension of spirit, so I felt his dramatic appearance was a confirmation that my grandmother was with me on this lovely summer afternoon.

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Waking Dream: “Invocation”

(Saturday, July 18, 2015)Invocation

I returned yesterday from a weeklong photoshoot at a vacation rental home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The 6,000 square foot adobe was built into the side of a bare stone mountain, with an infinity pool overlooking the valley. A small courtyard on the lowest level housed a large bronze sculpture by Craig Dan Goseyun, the Apache artist who created the 20-foot high sculpture on Museum Hill in Santa Fe called “Apache Mountain Spirit.”

The Paradise Valley sculpture is called “Invocation” and is also a Mountain Spirit. Whenever I head out on a long trip, the tarot card I draw the morning of departure is usually from the major arcana. This time I drew “World Dancer.”

Mountain Spirits are also called Crown Dancers or “gaan.” Four Apache dancers “become” these sacred beings, accompanied by a Clown/Trickster. They dance at night, bringing the spiritual world into physical manifestation.

http://nativeskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/03/apache-mountain-spirit-dancers.html

Two hummingbirds hover in the dancer’s headdress. One morning when I was drinking my coffee at poolside, a hummingbird buzzed in from the lower edge of the yard and levitated over the turquoise water for several minutes, giving me a thorough inspection.

Hummingbird is associated with the Ghost Dance, which invokes the return of the animals and the end of the whites. Hummingbird feathers open the heart and have been used for a millennium in love charms. Sweetness, joy, beauty.

All of the valuable art in the house was from Santa Fe, and many of the books. I felt homesick, but not for Minneapolis.

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House of Great Energy and Beauty

This morning in yoga I remembered a dream fragment from earlier this week:

I am observing Frida Kahlo. Or a Mexican artist of similar creative sensibility. This woman has her own beautiful house, separate from her husband. It’s full of dynamic, energetic artwork.

Frida lived in a modern, blue house and Diego Rivera lived in the larger, white house next door.

The Dreamsters Union