As I was saying,there are many ways of traveling. The long Winter nights were used by traditional tribal peoples to share tales of courage, challenges successfully met by cultural heroes, romance and trickster stories to delight young and old in campfire circles around the world.
Dreaming was taken seriously and wisdom carefully gleaned from dreams shared. I have long kept dream journals and recorded as many episodes as I can recall each morning. I enjoy going back over them and noticing the recurring symbols and themes and speculating on what I am working out in my dreamlife. All of this recently culminated in a body of work called "astral journeys, inner worlds" that is being presented in Hampden Gallery at the University of Massachusetts this month. For more information here's the link http://www.umass.edu/fac/calendar/hampden/events/DEBORAHGARNER.html
The image in the right corner of this blog is called Dream Journey and is very evocative for me.
I used it as the postcard for the exhibition. The ripe, fecund natural world is being lead into a more barren world it seems, until the old blind man who confidently leads the way is noticed to be following the fiery light of his passion, his soul.... and so it is with each of us when we allow ourselves to follow our bliss.
This work began as simple monoprint landscapes, overtime I collected images from very early (1919) National Geographic magazines that were being tossed at the recycling bin .These were collaged in to populate the scenes as they related to dreams I had been having. Colored pencil and water color washes helped me achieve the effect I was reaching for. I will share more images in a small slide show and include my Artist Statement about this work to hopefully add to your enjoyment.
At the opening I was delighted with the enthusiastic response from other "dreamers" in attendance! I hope this will encourage some of you to tap this rich native source of inspiration that was our collective creative birthright!