for my surrealism class we are putting together a "surrealist journal" as a class and are required to submit something that is related to surrealism/forms of surrealism/things of interest/methods of practice, etc. of our own. for example, people have submitted poetry(which was a favorite of the surrealists), drawings, interviews, etc. for my contribution i decided to keep a dream diary that describes my dreams of the previous night in explicit detail. i have done this before multiple times and i can recall my dreams almost exactly from years before because my dreams are so vivid.
i have decided to do this for a number of reasons, and the lesser reason is for my class. if you are close to me and know me well you would know that my dreams are an integral part of my life. they have resonated with me since i was little and i quickly found out that i was given the uncanny ability to recall my dreams in full detail, and when i say "full" i mean full detail. my dreams were not only vivid and burned into my memory almost every night that i dream, but they are also bizarre. dreams are often strange and weird, but mine happen almost every night. i am grateful that i am able to remember my crazy dreams so well because it gives me the ability to reach further into my subconscious mind then other people can. i write down my dreams in fear that one day i would forget and to someday share my mind with others. this project for my class is the perfect opportunity to do such a thing, i can share my subconscious mind with others and perhaps they can further illuminate more general notions of human desire.
my dreams, although extremely important to me have not yet found a way into my artwork. perhaps no project in school has given me the opportunity to use them, but now is the perfect time to start bridging the two together and create much more intimate and personal works.
this is one of the two trimmings that i bought. this is so delicate yet so weighty, i love the feel of it. there are spots in the chain that are falling apart and i love that about this piece. if you look closely at the golden leaves you can see that the gold thread is actually wire that has been so finely coiled that it looks like beading. my favorite part about this piece is the fact that it is all stitched to newspaper! if you look at the last picture you can see that on the back there are letters and words on the base, the entire piece has newspaper as the base.
i made this bookmark on a whim last week i think(?) and i realized i really needed more practice so...
i made this tonight for some practice. this printed fabric is a design that i had printed at Philadelphia University.
it was raining cats and dogs outside today and the tree across the street from us fell over!
bad picture that was taken from the upstairs window of my backyard being rained on like crazy
i have been interested in tarot cards for a very long time, and found them important for life lessons and how to deal with problems. my dad used to read them for people but stopped a long time ago; i remember getting my first set at the pennsylvania renaissance faire when i was in 6th grade i think. i've been getting back into them recently and bought a new set and a new book. the rider or waite deck (pictured here) is perhaps the most universal and the illustrations are amazing. i would love to do a print based on tarot cards someday.
