Painting and Poem by Ed Tajchman

This is a painting of mine from 2013. I call it Man Falling Deliberately in a Dream. It is based on a lucid dream I had once where I jumped off a cliff in full confidence that I could stop halfway down if I wanted to, and did. A very powerful feeling is evoked in lucid dreams, I like it. Following it is a poem of mine.

Man Falling Deliberately in a Dream by Ed Tajchman. Acrylic on canvas 2013.

  
Soul is Another Word for Dreaming
 
Lost in the never ending valleys and hills is where It found me when my heart was still.

The light singing inside those Eyes, shining amidst the shadows.

They silently and subtly released the binding that held my wings tied.

If I said I knew what it felt like to fly before now, I lied.

Art, Dreams, Life,

My art is in my dreams.

my art is my life.

my dreams are another life.

life is my art.

my life is another dream.

my dreams are in my art.

art is love for the world.

-Ed Tajchman

Are There At Least Two Major Modes of the Dreaming Mind?

"There are two views with regard to the different states of the soul. One of them makes a distinction between the waking and dreaming states while the other regards them as having no real distinction. Another state of the soul,  viz, the state of dreamless sleep or deep sleep, is the state in which the individual soul becomes identical with the Absolute."

  -from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

One of the most interesting subjects in life for me as always been dreams. Not goals and desires, but the actual dreaming mind. Dreaming cannot help but be a major influence on my creative and visionary understanding of myself and the world. I know a lot of artists would say the same thing. Not just artists, but thinkers in all walks of life benefit from the power of the symbol based workings of the inner mind.

But speaking directly to the quote above I think it is talking about two aspects of the dreaming mind. One aspect is the personal symbol based one, of which the subconscious mind plays out the desires, fears, thoughts about daily life, etc. The second one, the one that is identical to the absolute, is the state in which the soul actually leaves the body and visits an objective reality. What some could call the astral plane. The deeper reality that is beyond this waking one.

I have had dreams where I am in old building where I used to live or inhabit often. Many times in these dreams, especially in the dreams about places I've lived, I specifically notice that familiar objects are not there. The room is the same, the dimensions are the same, but the desks that I called mine, the bookshelves, gone. Replaced with strange and unfamiliar items. Is this the soul-state interacting in real time with the waking world? The world that is identical to the absolute as described in the Upanishad? It's interesting to think about. Why would I dream about a former home, complete with correct dimensions, but see new unrecognized objects where I know old ones should be? Strange objects which have no identifiable correlation to myself in any way?

Sometimes I think strong events cast a shadow. Like the shadow of an oncoming storm-cloud, or the eery green stillness before a great storm. Dreams can be the way that we perceive this stillness, this shadow, psychically. I think that there is an absolute realm that is less dense than this one, like the levels of reality as described in the Cabala. And it's possible that important events in life happen in that realm first. Or it's possible to see events in this reality from that perspective. So it seems like you are seeing the future. Like seeing the same spot from different points in a coil. The way of perceiving reality completely linearly is an illusion, physics tells us this is true.

Many of the symbols in my paintings are directly from my dreaming mind. The interplay of the visual language of the mind is endlessly fascinating. Even if the implications of a possible absolute realm accessible through the dream state is a reality or not, the dream state remains an awe-inspiring tool.

Dreaming is the Hard Part, Believe it or Not

"I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious."
-Andrew Wyeth

I find this quip from Wyeth to be very true for me in the sense that when I'm painting there is that inherent bliss in the work. The continuity of the project, the brush to the paper, the dipping in water, the flow of the paint, finishing the line, seeing the form, finishing the next part etc.

When I'm not painting (or engaging in other hobbies/distractions) it's like my mind is constantly churning. I mean the action of the painting, can be considered the final part of the process. Everything I see, hear, etc. I am automatically influenced by, and the mind is constantly taking in and thinking, thinking, thinking; always thinking. It's hard to shut the damn thing off sometimes.

Even as a kid age seven or eight maybe, I remember thinking about my mind as being similar to some sort of separate muscle that moved on its own without my intending it too. I found it frustrating. Almost like it could process information faster than my conscious mind could work through. I guess that is what dreams are for. I have always been much more of a visual learner, then anything else. It took me a long time to start talking, but I always remember being comfortable drawing pictures.

So about dreaming specifically, it's an important part of my creative process. Dreaming can be like painting in the sense that you're working out aspects (trying to express and understand) of your daily life, inner fears, desires, emotions; through elements like visual symbols and various imagery, colors, and settings. Sometimes I'll get an idea for a painting from a dream and sometimes I will create a painting and then dream about the elements from it. Both are things that help me understand myself better.

 Anyways that is my thought for the day (well one at least). Just another attempt at understanding the creative process.

Some of My Favorite Movie Directors

With this post I would like to pay tribute to some of my favorite artistic movie directors. They are all current filmmakers whose work ranges from the past 20 years or so. They all have tremendous vision and the ability to execute that vision from the biggest to smallest detail of all their movies. While not all of them are mainstream Hollywood, (thank goodness) they are definitely directors who have made a name for themselves in the field of cinema.

Some of my favorite movies are ones that are more like dreams; where a straightforward storyline or narrative is not necessarily necessary. Films like - Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Dr. (2001), from David Lynch. Some of Lynch's earlier works include Eraserhead (1977), which is an insanely crazy movie in black and white, (1986) Blue Velvet, and Dune (1984).

"Films are like magic. They take us into new worlds. And that should be protected at all costs." - David Lynch quoted in Entertainment Weekly, February 22, 2002

In this post I mentioned Julian Schnabel, check it out for more on this great painter turned movie director. In addition to Basquiat, which is in my top 5 movies of all time he has also directed the movies: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), and Before Night Falls (2000).

Next on the list is Tim Burton. He directed my second favorite movie of all time - Edward Scissorhands. Also Big Fish, The first two Batman movies (the best ones by far, the only mistake was casting Michael Keaton as Batman), Beetlejuice, and Nightmare before Christmas, just to name a few. I mean come on, who else would make a full-scale insane clay-mation movie with a gothic/fantasy theme... no one else I can think of besides Burton. (The 2005 movie Corpse Bride was also in this vein).

Burton is a director whose movies have no wasted space. There are no parts however small, that weren't carefully thought out. All the directors mentioned here share that attribute; a masterful eye for detail, and a masterful eye for the larger picture.

"So if too many people like my films, I might get scared and think I did something wrong. Honestly.” -Jim Jarmusch

Next up is Jim Jarmusch; who directed Dead Man (1995), my most favorite movie of all time. Truly a visionary masterpiece, It stars Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer. (Yes I am a big Johnny Depp fan, but less so now that he has gone all super-Hollywood on us with Pirate shenanigans 1, 2 and 3.) I did like Depp's controversial take on Willy Wonka that many disagreed with. For those of you that haven't actually read the books by Ronald Doahl, Depp's take on Wonka is much closer to the book version than Gene Wilder's was. I am not taking anything away from Wilder, just saying it wasn't as true to the book. But back to Jarmusch; besides Dead Man he has also directed Ghost Dog, Coffee and Cigarettes, and Broken Flowers to name a few.

M. Night Shyamalan is another one of the better current directors out there right now. He has had some big hits but he has also taken risks. A lot of people didn't like his fairy tale - Lady in the Water, I thought it was a fantastic movie though. Shattered was a great movie, and Signs was very creepy. Shyamalan definitely has a storyteller kind of take with his style. He directed a live action movie of the animation series "Avatar" due out later this year. (Which is totally bogus that James Cameron produced a movie called Avatar, knowingly capitalizing on the buzz around the Last Airbender movie).

"I think I take what you might call a B-movie story, deal with B-movie subjects, and I treat it as if it`s an A-movie in terms of my approach, my crew, my actors, my ethics and so on. I guess that`s my trademark or one of them anyway!"
- M. Night Shyamalan

The ending of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series kind of disappointed me, but it was still one of the better modern fantasy stories out there currently, and I liked the diverse, inclusive feel of it. It will be interesting to see Shyamalan's take on it, considering that much of that diverse feel was supposedly taken out in his casting of the movie.

I didn't go too in depth with my analysis of these directors and their fantastic works, but for those that haven't seen some of these movies mentioned, I leave the magic there for you to discover for yourself, without my perception clouding your experience. Feel free to comment on all the movies that these guys directed that I failed to mention, or about anything you want, as always.

Artist Cristina Clarimon from Madrid, Spain

"Fledgling" by Cristina Clarimon © 2009

To me, artist Cristina Clarimon's work combines classic modern styles of drawing, painting, collage, and printmaking with a truly unique voice and aesthetic. In this digital age I still find myself being drawn to work like this; uniquely textured and well-thought out designs done by hand. Her work has an ephemeral dream-like quality that draws your attention into the work and keeps it there for a long time, and that is one key element of any great artwork.

"Daytime Star" by Cristina Clarimon © 2009

From the words of the artist herself:

"My work has no single influence. I like simple, well edited final images. I borrow from dreams, memories, folk tales and found images that capture my attention. Thematically, there are a few elements that my pieces seem to have in common...Empty landscapes, houses, fire, people (mostly by themselves)...I try to achieve a sense of melancholy, of past events that are now mere recollections...Places that were and people we knew..."
-Cristina Clarimon

"Untitled-3" by Cristina Clarimon © 2009

I really like the aqua-blue color with the bright red in the two paintings shown above, and at the top. They both have that element of almost telling a story but being mysterious and unanswered at the same time. The layered, carefully textured work, gives this viewer a kind of haunted feeling that is quite interesting. We thank Mrs. Clarimon for sharing her work and her words with us here at Modern Art Quotes.

Where's the Line and How do I Cross It?

This post kind of continues along the lines of the last one, touching on the struggle between working for someone else and working for your art; that eternal struggle to have the time and energy to pursue your creative goals more fully. With focused effort and hard work towards lofty goals, yes it's possible to pursue your dream (evidenced by successful full-time artists), but where do you draw the line? At what point do you just go for it fully and how exactly do you even do that? (Those aren't rhetorical questions, I would really like to know the answer). Sometimes it can seem like every day for years is a struggle just to find motivation for a bit of creative juice and the energy and time to utilize it.

There are millions of us in this world who say well I am really a writer or I am working here, but I really am a painter. That last leg of the journey to doing your art full time requires a lot of risk taking, and sometimes it seems like I don't even know how to approach that risk. Well the first step obviously is creating the work, and the best way to do that is in solitude, found in the time necessary to be free and do the work.

"To dream magnificently is not a gift given to all men, and even for those who possess it, it runs a strong risk of being progressively diminished by the ever-growing dissipation of modern life and by the restlessness engendered by material progress. The ability to dream is a divine and mysterious ability; because it is through dreams that man communicates with the shadowy world which surrounds him. But this power needs solitude to develop freely; the more one concentrates, the more one is likely to dream fully, deeply."
-Charles Baudelaire

You always hear the stories of great artists and writers, musicians, etc. who were born into a comfortable life, whose fathers and mothers taught them their art from the time they were born, and introduced them to all the proper connections their whole life. That is often the story when you read the biography of famous artists of the past. How many people who are given the gift of being able to dream deeply, are allowed the time and the effort needed to truly use this gift?

Working full-time or part-time even at a job that's not ideal because one has bills to pay and of course being tired after the day is done can seem as I said before, like an endless cycle. Maybe you get a little work done doing what you truly love to do, but I also imagine what I could do with a fully laid out wide open studio and lots of time (who doesn't though right?).

Speaking specifically though about Baudelaire's words above and dreaming.... One summer a number of years ago I did have the luxury of time, freedom and the concentration to write my dreams down every day. Where at first it seemed like a lot of random crazy objects, people, and events; after a few weeks a pattern emerged. Like filling in a puzzle that you don't have the whole picture to yet but eventually it starts to make sense. I am well on way in this journey of filling out that puzzle that is my art, with a bit of luck maybe eventually I'll be able to fill it in and complete the whole picture, or at least start to get some major holes filled in!

Jumbled Faces

Jumbled Faces, drawing by Ed T. © 2008

This sketchbook entry of mine dates from a few years ago and is from the same book as other recent entries featured here at Modern Art Quotes. Like a lot of artists and people in general, I am sometimes drawn (pun intended) to drawing faces. As humans, face recognition played a vital role in our evolution as a species. Astronomer and author Carl Sagan proposed that humans are hard-wired from infancy to recognize the human face. There is even a technical term for this behavior: Pareidolia.

"Theoretically it should be possible to 'peel' the collective unconscious, layer by layer, until we came to the psychology of the worm, and even of the amoeba" - C.G. Jung, Collected Works.

Aside from the aesthetic fun of drawing faces, this drawing is also playing with that idea of the collective unconscious. I have had dreams before where I suspect that some of the players in the dream are not mere figments of my imagination, but are somehow really there. I am not saying this is a regular occurrence, but it does happen once in a while, which I don't think is unusual for people and their dreams, what do you think? And this might sound crazy to some people, - but I know I have stumbled into my cat's and dog's dreams once in a while on accident - I would never usually dream about chasing rodents, jumping around like an animal, or interacting with large wolf like creatures.

Thoughts on Dreaming and "The Dreamweaver"

I want to write about something that is a fascinating subject to me - the world of dreams. Dreaming is an immense and infinite subject, but I want to touch on a few key points at least. Dreams (the actual sleeping kind of dreams, not goals) can be many different things to many different people, the important thing to remember is that they are very subjective of course. Although some have tried to devise a 'standard' to understanding dreams, it is always a very unique and personal process.

Dreams can be your fantasies, your plans, your worries, simply a reaction to eating junk food, your wants and needs, a carry-over from your daily life, a form of telepathic communication, a way to gain insight into your mind, a portal to spiritual dimensions and many other things. Some people claim that they don't dream, but this is not true - everybody dreams, you may just not remember them. Keeping a notepad by the side of the bed is one way to start helping you to remember them, and the more you write day after day, the more of your dreams you will remember.

Speaking of dreaming practices, let me tell you about one of the most fascinating books I have honestly ever read - Carlos Castaneda's The Art of Dreaming. Back in the day, Dr. Castaneda was just an anthropological student searching for an authentic old-school teacher when he found Don Juan. Don Juan taught Carlos many things and he wrote it all down in a series of books. Among these teachings is one set aimed at understanding the lucid dreaming process more fully, which Carlos gives us in this book.

Lucid dreaming is the state of mind you reach when, in your dreams you know absolutely that it is a dream, remaining asleep but attaining a kind of half-conscious state in the dream. The more skill you have in your lucid dreaming the more conscious you are and the more control you have. As I said, the book is a set of practices for improving one's lucid dreaming skills, set inside of a narrative. Some people debate the existence of Castaneda's Don Juan, but whether it exactly happened the way he wrote it or not, the information he provides in this book and all of his books is simply mind-blowing.

"Judged by the subjective standards of orderly thoughts, orderly visual and auditory sensory input, orderly responses on my part, my experiences, for as long as they lasted, were as real as any situation in our daily world."

- Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming.

One way that Don Juan describes the dreamworld to Carlos is that he says it is like the skins of an onion. The more you peel the more you discover, and every layer is entirely different than the last. In the background of my sketch below you can see a kind of layered-gate or portal with a figure standing in front of it; he is The Dreamweaver. I did this around the time I was reading the book for the first time several years ago.

The Dreamweaver by Ed T. © 2008

One of the things that Don Juan prescribes to Carlos to help him enter the lucid dreaming state, is that he tells him to try and remember to look at his hands. Simply focus on this idea over and over as you fall asleep and in the dream if you remember to do that it can trigger lucid dreaming. Seeing your hand in the dream not only bridges the gap to your conscious mind (which you employed for this exact purpose) it forces you to focus and look at detail in the dream. So that's why The Dreamweaver's hand in my drawing is so big.

But what about dreams as an analytical tool? Not only are dreams a tool for understanding your self and your mind, they can be tools for understanding information in an entirely new way. For example, some mathematicians claim dreams can help them gain perspective and answers even to unsolvable equations. Dreams provide inspiration not only to problem-solvers but to artists, inventors, philosophers, writers, and anyone that has ever gained insight from a dream. The key being the unconscious mind's ability to process information in a much more abstract method than the conscious can ever hope to do. Take this quote from Carl Jung on the subject:

"The unconscious seems to be able to examine and to draw conclusions from facts, much as consciousness does. It can even use certain facts, and anticipate their possible results, just because we are not conscious of them."

- Carl Jung, Man and his symbols.

I once had a dream where there was this absurdly large cowboy, almost like in those Zippy cartoons where those large store icons come to life and talk to him. This giant cowboy went to shake my hand and proceeded to crush it. It didn't hurt but I woke up and remembered feeling shocked that it was happening. At the time, a fellow employee that I was working with at my job was studying dreams and psychology in college. He immediately aked if there was a situation I was feeling overwhelmed by. And in fact there was, I was planning on moving out of state for the first time soon, and was definitely concerned about leaving my home city.

I was amazed that the key to understanding the dream was so simple and that he got it so fast, and that it was very true. More true than I realized at the time even. Then I was feeling mostly just excitement and readiness. But months later, without going into too much detail, I did experience that realization of being overwhelmed by being in a completely new place with new people, I guess that's what you call culture shock?

So I hope you enjoyed my short journey into the world of dreams. Feel free to share your own dreams in the comments, or any insights you want to share about dreaming. If you have a longer entry, feel free to email it to me and I will post it here at Modern Art Quotes, make sure and include a link to your homepage if you want.

The Symbolist Movement of the Late 1800's

My last post included a work from French symbolist painter Odilon Redon. I would like to discuss the Symbolist movement in more detail with this post. They are a group of late 19th and early 20th century artists and poets, including Jean Moreas (who published the symbolist manifesto in 1886), Charles Baudelaire, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, and Paul Gauguin among many others.

Odilon Redon, Cyclops, 1904.

Originating in France, with many German influences as well, it consisted of not just artists, but poetry and other arts also. Here is a quote from Jean Moreas from the aforementioned symbolist manifesto:

"In this art, scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena will not be described for their own sake; here, they are perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with the primordial Ideals."

- Jean Moreas, Le Manifeste du Symbolisme, Le Figaro, 1886

Symbolism was a reaction to the realist or naturalism movement that also originated in France in the mid 19th century. (Which in itself was a reaction to romanticism, the cycle never ends!) The symbolists sought to express a more ideal reality, rather than the rigid and emotionless works of the realists. One of the main influences of artists in the symbolist movement was their dreams. Let's hear from the French poet and symbolist Charles Baudelaire on this point:

"Common sense tells us that terrestrial things have but a faint existence and that reality itself is only found in dreams."

- Charles Baudelaire, Les Paradis Artificiels

I couldn't agree more with those words. If you read my last post on the fact that all matter is energy, this would imply that dreams on some level are indeed real. Yes some dreams are just because you ate pizza right before bed, but some dreams are much more than that. Some are also just a reflection of your mind, and the things it observes every day. In any case my dreams have provided me with inspiration and a re-interpretation of my own ideas in ways my conscious mind would of never done.

Jean Delville, Orpheus, 1893.

Although I don't dig all of the work by the symbolists (still too real for my taste), I dig that they made efforts to break away from expressing or rather merely recreating the physical material world, and expressing more spiritual truths and ideals. I know I have harped on this point before, about that criticism of some modern art that goes, "a five year old could paint that" or "I could do that". That kind of thinking misses the point entirely on non-objective art. The point is not a showcase of how well you can recreate life with paint and a brush, the point is to express whatever the hell I want to and if you don't like it, go look at something else! Alright I got a little excited there, but I don't create to get validation, I create to express myself, and in so doing, learn more about my self.

Joseph Campbell on Myths and Dreams

There's an old saying that goes something like (if you know the author, post a comment) 'every legend comes from somewhere'. I firmly believe this, of course we all know how tall tales get out of hand and passed on and twisted little by little, often to fit a role or need in the culture where the original event or person happened. Sometimes the myth predates the actual person or event even, if the need is strong enough, take this quote from Joseph Campbell:

"Myths are the world's dreams. They are archetypal dreams and deal with great human problems. Myths and dreams come from the same place. They come from realizations of some kind that then have to find expression in symbolic form. "

- Joseph Campbell

That my friends is the role of the modern artist; to mold and assimilate these collective myths and dreams of ours into the physical world of expression. To make happen, the unconscious needs of our society, much like dreams manifest the unconscious needs of the individual.