This is a drawing of a dream I had many years ago when I was struggling with some spiritual stuff (which is most of the time). I recreated it digitally and added colour. It's a reminder that simplicity is often the best way to represent complex ideas.
Since I completed my PhD 7 years ago I haven't recorded my dreams. For decades previous to that I did - in words and sometimes journal drawings. I ended up with dozens of journals that I had kept since my early twenties. It was an overwhelming amount of information to keep track and make sense of.
To get past the scrutiny of the PhD examiners I had to remove large chunks of writing from my thesis because they were too 'personal'. Hell, the whole thing was personal, but I was able to justify it by relating it to art history and Jungian archetype theory. It's all about context.
Last year, having reached a level of integration, I went through my journals and destroyed most of the material. Some of the drawings were scanned and saved and I also kept a few accounts of 'critical' points in my journey. Lately I have been revisiting the extracted sections from my thesis.
My life-long art practice, and the core idea of my thesis, is based in 'alchemy' - basically, that engaging with dreams and imagery in general can give us greater insight into the true nature of reality through gnosis or direct knowing. The process is alchemical and psychological.
My original intention for doing the PhD was to 'prove' a methodology, document my own process and make it available for others. I completed the first 2 parts of that journey and I'm now wondering whether I should try to finish what I set out to do, or whether I should let go of it and continue on alone.
Image: Author, digital drawing.
I'm curious about what the third part of the journey would be and how letting go of it means continuing on alone.
ReplyDeleteI love that you have recorded your dreams for decades. I have been keeping journals since my father died in 1992. I have found it is the best way to look back and piece together the forgotten history of details as the years go by.
It must add an incredible richness to have your drawings with your words and dreams.
Robin the third part is to revisit what I wrote in my thesis and write a methodology specifially for anyone who want sto use it for their own journey. I know you don't believe in 'God' as in, some kind of consciousness beyond physical life, so I won't expand on that, but that's basically what I'm into - the evolution of consciousness.
DeleteI started keeping dream journals in 1979 when I took a class from William Everson (Brother Antonious) on the book Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I had also read a lot of Jung's work. I kept the writing practice up for a couple of decades and found it very useful. Then, like you, I looked back on a lot of writing and only seem some of it still useful to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about how you produce your digital art. I'm a photographer and a sketch artist I am intrigued about the idea of creating digital art.
Tara I'll try to explain the way I work and my digital art in the next post.
DeleteYou would defitely understand where I am coming from if you know about Joseph Campbell's and Jung's work. Jung was the main theorist reference for my thesis. I love his work, particularly his later work which tended more towards the spiritual. I really think he was a 'shaman'. And I'm into that in a big way - journeying into the 'unconscious' as a way to find wisdom.
And yes, 'images' (which includes journal writing) are ultimately only useful in so much as they help us understand ourselves and evolve consciousness. That's why I've never been interested in being a 'commercial' artist and selling my work. It has a different purpose for me.
I feel as though I don't have any intellectual understanding at all of what you are talking about in this post but I might have an intuitive knowledge of it.
ReplyDeleteI want to say you should finish your work....but only because i think you may regret it if you dont.
Everyone has their own system Kylie. I'm sure there are many points of connection between how you approach God and how I do. Although I am not a Christian, Jung wrote eloquently about God in the context of Christianity and this has given me a greater understanding and appreciation of that faith.
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