the DREAM PAINTINGS
Introduction~Two years ago I began EMDR therapy to assist me in my chronic auto immune illness of SLE Lupus. And it seems to have the interesting effect of allowing me intense images just as I am waking up. An image will land front and center in my mind. These are like the most brilliant color detailed images. When I open my eyes the image remains in my mind so I have learned to go downstairs, sometimes at 2:ooam and whip out the sketch book and put the vision down on paper. It is easy. It is just there and I am copying it. Then back to bed.
Now the thing is, I am always working on a painting. Sometimes two or three paintings or art projects throughout the day. But, they get ignored as I found out that I cannot get the dream image out of my mind and thoughts until I paint the dream image. Once the painting is being created then the minds image is released.
These paintings are truly special to me. The way they occur into my mind is a mystery and I just go with it. I asked my therapist why this was occuring and he said calmly that the EMDR therapy was freeing up my mind. Okay, then I said that we need to do more EMDR because these paintings are selling!
Now the thing is, I am always working on a painting. Sometimes two or three paintings or art projects throughout the day. But, they get ignored as I found out that I cannot get the dream image out of my mind and thoughts until I paint the dream image. Once the painting is being created then the minds image is released.
These paintings are truly special to me. The way they occur into my mind is a mystery and I just go with it. I asked my therapist why this was occuring and he said calmly that the EMDR therapy was freeing up my mind. Okay, then I said that we need to do more EMDR because these paintings are selling!
Lookey Loos dream painting
The first dream painting is the Lookey Loos. It is based on the frogs asking each other what they looked like~~~ now I had been reading a Buddhist book telling of the movie about ourselves. Let us say that we go to a movie playing in our own theater about ourselves and that watching it we agree that it is rather correct. Not bad in fact.....then we go next door to the movie about us that is playing in our mother's theater and we see some changes and we are not so agreeable to this movie. Then going to our brother's theater and the movie about us would be different again and not all that much agreeable to us either. So we go back to the movie in OUR theater and it seems to fit. Our theater is playing a good movie!
The interpretation of the dream image that imprinted my mind was this: one frog was asking another frog friend what he looked like. Note that our perception of ourselves is never quite the way that we are perceived by others. Thus the Lookey Loo frogs decided to bend the reeds to look at their own images reflected in the water and see for themselves who they are.
Cool! Great painting of ourselves!
The interpretation of the dream image that imprinted my mind was this: one frog was asking another frog friend what he looked like. Note that our perception of ourselves is never quite the way that we are perceived by others. Thus the Lookey Loo frogs decided to bend the reeds to look at their own images reflected in the water and see for themselves who they are.
Cool! Great painting of ourselves!
Eileen Ullrich collection
SURF'N KOI dream painting
The ocean is a great source of inspiration to me. During the first weeks living in Honolulu I taught myself to boogie board and in fact the second time out I actually surfed 10 foot waves, the biggest swell in Waikiki in 27 years they said..... I didn't know that until after the fact. Over 500 people were rescued from the waters in Waikiki that day. Me? I had a blast! Oh, it looked different from the first time I had gone out a few days earlier. And as I stood at the waters edge...everyone was going in....so I did too.
I admire surfers and I envy them too. Why didn't I go to Hawai'i when I was younger and I still had family there and I was a hot looking babe and I could have been a surfer girl? For all the time and training that I invested into the martial art I studied I now know that I definitely would have enjoyed surfing 'way mor beddha' as the locals say.
So I had the vision of this painting exactly as you see it one morning at about 2am. I went downstairs and drew it in my sketch book.
A few days earlier a great Hawaiian surfer Andy Irons had just died suddenly in his hotel room in Texas. He was on his way home to Kauai after leaving a surf competition early. I was saddened and stunned. My heart was heavy as I remembered a few years earlier sitting with his aunt watching him surf on the computer while we were at work. She was so proud of him.
In the dream vision the koi fish were surfing and happily pushing the water lily flowers aside with their wake. I felt the feelings of happy joyful fun. Painting the scene over the next few days was my release from my sadness. It became a Mandala and a tribute to Andy Irons.
I admire surfers and I envy them too. Why didn't I go to Hawai'i when I was younger and I still had family there and I was a hot looking babe and I could have been a surfer girl? For all the time and training that I invested into the martial art I studied I now know that I definitely would have enjoyed surfing 'way mor beddha' as the locals say.
So I had the vision of this painting exactly as you see it one morning at about 2am. I went downstairs and drew it in my sketch book.
A few days earlier a great Hawaiian surfer Andy Irons had just died suddenly in his hotel room in Texas. He was on his way home to Kauai after leaving a surf competition early. I was saddened and stunned. My heart was heavy as I remembered a few years earlier sitting with his aunt watching him surf on the computer while we were at work. She was so proud of him.
In the dream vision the koi fish were surfing and happily pushing the water lily flowers aside with their wake. I felt the feelings of happy joyful fun. Painting the scene over the next few days was my release from my sadness. It became a Mandala and a tribute to Andy Irons.
This painting is now owned by Arlene Slocom in Lawrence, Kansas. Arlene is an old Tae Kwon Do buddy of mine and I think this Mandala gives her positive energy in all that she tries and succeeds to accomplish. She walked into the Hawaiian Kine Art Show and picked it out without hesitating. I believe this is a good match.
TSUNAMI SOULS dream painting
After the Japanese Tsunami we all felt the trauma of the natural event and its power to change lives. So overwhelming is the amount of lives that were lost so quickly. After days of all the news coverage I awoke abruptly in the middle of the night to the most incredible image in my mind. This was very much accompanied by feelings that were soothing; in effect that it was happening at that point in time and that it was positive. Again, very much in the moment. Not a feeling of loss or sadness or even remorse. No past or no future.
But, I didn't get up and go downstairs and draw it down. This time I closed my eyes and went back to it in my mind and fell into a deep sleep.
In the morning I pulled out a sheet of watercolor paper and measured it off. I had no direct plans, it was just like I was being directed. I marked out a circle. I began to draw the koi fish that I saw in my minds image. You see, the dream paintings are easy because I just have to pull them from my mind. It is all there already laid out. Not at all like developing a new painting and designing what will take place. Nope, this was set.
I stood over the line drawing on the 300lb Arches watercolor paper. Out of my mouth came the words "what the hell does that mean?"
Paul was over on the couch and said I was talking to myself, did I mean to talk to him? I was perplexed.~~~~you see there was only one fish.
In a Mandala I usually do two koi fish, a pair of them to show balance. Here was only one fish that was enveloping four glass Japanese fishing floats. Each float was pointing it's nipple in a different direction. Why Four? That means death...such as in Asia it is like our number 13. There was no fourth floor in the yoguans of Korea where I traveled in 2002.
I had to figure this out. I was actually drawing something imprinted in my mind that I did not understand the meaning of. Such as the fish had a big red spot on it's head. I know of this koi fish, but never thought to paint it. There are lots of different markings of the koi fish and some are more valued than others. I googled it and found out the red dot on the head of the koi happens to be
the most favored in Japan as the red symbol is also the symbol carrried on the Japanese flag. I also learned that the koi legend tells of it's strength which makes it a favored symbol in Japan and tells that it is powerful enough to swim upstream, even up the waterfall and then dive into the mist and emerge as a dragon having been reborn.
This was starting to get rather suggestive to me. The koi fish I drew was encircling four balls with the Mandala center point held up by it's tail fin---another point to note is I never draw such a simple one. I like things complicated. So next I looked at Japanese symbols and indeed this was a symbol for strength and very 'male'. Hmmmmm. Japan is a very strong male society.....
But, I didn't get up and go downstairs and draw it down. This time I closed my eyes and went back to it in my mind and fell into a deep sleep.
In the morning I pulled out a sheet of watercolor paper and measured it off. I had no direct plans, it was just like I was being directed. I marked out a circle. I began to draw the koi fish that I saw in my minds image. You see, the dream paintings are easy because I just have to pull them from my mind. It is all there already laid out. Not at all like developing a new painting and designing what will take place. Nope, this was set.
I stood over the line drawing on the 300lb Arches watercolor paper. Out of my mouth came the words "what the hell does that mean?"
Paul was over on the couch and said I was talking to myself, did I mean to talk to him? I was perplexed.~~~~you see there was only one fish.
In a Mandala I usually do two koi fish, a pair of them to show balance. Here was only one fish that was enveloping four glass Japanese fishing floats. Each float was pointing it's nipple in a different direction. Why Four? That means death...such as in Asia it is like our number 13. There was no fourth floor in the yoguans of Korea where I traveled in 2002.
I had to figure this out. I was actually drawing something imprinted in my mind that I did not understand the meaning of. Such as the fish had a big red spot on it's head. I know of this koi fish, but never thought to paint it. There are lots of different markings of the koi fish and some are more valued than others. I googled it and found out the red dot on the head of the koi happens to be
the most favored in Japan as the red symbol is also the symbol carrried on the Japanese flag. I also learned that the koi legend tells of it's strength which makes it a favored symbol in Japan and tells that it is powerful enough to swim upstream, even up the waterfall and then dive into the mist and emerge as a dragon having been reborn.
This was starting to get rather suggestive to me. The koi fish I drew was encircling four balls with the Mandala center point held up by it's tail fin---another point to note is I never draw such a simple one. I like things complicated. So next I looked at Japanese symbols and indeed this was a symbol for strength and very 'male'. Hmmmmm. Japan is a very strong male society.....
All the water and glass and light made the image in my mind so beautifully translucent. All of it churning and then inside it all were these gleaming circles. The feeling of them were that they were precious and going to a new place. I then realized that they were the Japanese souls lost during the Tsunami event. Even now to write this gives me chicken skin, a Hawaiian term for goose bumps.
I have never painted much in translucent type images, but I began this painting never considering that. I had to paint it to release it from my mind. Today it is one of my favorite paintings and I believe for me it is -represents - the feeling that I had with it when it first came to me.
I have my own interpretation into it and the symbolism. Maybe you see more or maybe less. But, as I peeled the tape off the edges I walked outside to the forge in back to where Kate Dinneen was working. I showed it to her, the painting still a little wet and asked if she knew about gold leaf and that I wanted to add it to the painting to show the gleaming souls I saw. She asked if I was going to 'let this go?' and she asked for first rights of refusal, thus holding the painting until she could purchase it. The first person to see this painting finished enveloped it.
Next was the gold , silver and copper leaf. For this my friend and well known artist Diana Dunkley
then showed me the techniques I needed for paper leafing. I set about applying the gold leaf. It came out just as I had seen in my mind. Diana had also generously given me samples of water based metals. These I delicately used to add shadowing around the souls. When the light hits the painting again the souls flicker just as I saw in my minds image.
I have never painted much in translucent type images, but I began this painting never considering that. I had to paint it to release it from my mind. Today it is one of my favorite paintings and I believe for me it is -represents - the feeling that I had with it when it first came to me.
I have my own interpretation into it and the symbolism. Maybe you see more or maybe less. But, as I peeled the tape off the edges I walked outside to the forge in back to where Kate Dinneen was working. I showed it to her, the painting still a little wet and asked if she knew about gold leaf and that I wanted to add it to the painting to show the gleaming souls I saw. She asked if I was going to 'let this go?' and she asked for first rights of refusal, thus holding the painting until she could purchase it. The first person to see this painting finished enveloped it.
Next was the gold , silver and copper leaf. For this my friend and well known artist Diana Dunkley
then showed me the techniques I needed for paper leafing. I set about applying the gold leaf. It came out just as I had seen in my mind. Diana had also generously given me samples of water based metals. These I delicately used to add shadowing around the souls. When the light hits the painting again the souls flicker just as I saw in my minds image.