Dream Fragments and the Fever-Night Creeper
This post began with thoughts about dreaming and waking. “Here” might be the familiar waking world, and “there” the world of a dream. Yet when we first wake, fragments of the dream can still surround us. For a moment we seem to be between the two. Where does one end and the other begin?
In the previous post, I showed a painting as an attempt to come back into the light. It belongs to a series I call Exit. This new addition continues that search, though I will leave most of the interpretation to the viewer.
Exit — Leaving Here for There
Not Here — Not There
I sometimes worry that I paint too pleasingly. Making pictures to satisfy other people’s expectations has never appealed to me. What fascinates me is the possibility of moving beyond familiar criteria of a successful picture and arriving at another way of seeing.
That is part of my admiration for painters as different as Van Gogh, Picasso, Basquiat and Gerhard Richter. Whether I can achieve anything comparable is another matter. Still, it helps to have something to move towards. In this sheet, the dark forms press against a narrow, lighter interval; it is a less comfortable space than the open blue of the previous painting.
Still Here — Soon There
This painting belongs to The Magic Sea. I imagine the scene where water begins to surround the land and eventually swallows it. It is a central, dramatic passage in the project. The turbulent greens, yellow light and darker forms are intended to carry that sense of approaching danger.
Extra: The Fever-Night Creeper
Trying to see through a child’s eyes at my age presents its own difficulties. Copying the appearance of children’s drawings would miss the point. I am looking for a more direct response, and this picture, which should not be taken too solemnly, is one attempt.
I imagined a child who has spent several days in bed and wakes frightened by a creature from a feverish dream. Hours later, the child is still describing it. A parent suggests drawing the creature, giving the elusive fear a shape on paper. That little scene was my starting point for the “Fever-Night Creeper”.
I tried to paint it from that imagined child’s point of view, before too much explanation could get in the way.
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