Revised Project Proposal 2/2023
Project Title “Why I follow my dreams”
Renee Brown
My project explains: Why I follow my dreams.
It is my intent in this process project to firstly clarify the meaning of the title of my project, “Why I literally follow my dreams.” The cliché of “following your dream”, is an idiom, which has lost its original meaning and effect and become an often-quoted saying that is supposed to be meaningful has been hackneyed through overuse.
In context to my usage of the title “following my dream” within my personal methodology and in this process practice project. I desire to make perfectly clear that, the title demonstrates my response to the language of the night season (dreams). I follow the directions given me in my personal dreams which I journal nightly and respond to aesthetically with material. An example of this is when I sometimes receive direction for my art within a dream which is sometimes literally spoken inwardly, or I might see the strokes, marks or colors that come to assist me as I struggle through areas in my art making. They sometimes randomly come in visions in the day or while in a lucid state of sleep. The directions I receive come as if to guide and help me along. I will present how I embody and give tangible form to the phrase and title “How I follow my dream”. As I analyze my art practice I plan to highlight the relatedness between my aesthetic response to following my dream in my artmaking process and personal experiences and events that actually occur in reality. I have found my method very scant in the mainstream of modern art in western culture. I believe my project question will be a significant contribution to the artworld, and change current knowledge in the realm of dream cognition and art.
My relationship with creation is pivotal, and is entwined and embodied in my day to day reality which has resulted in an intimacy and total dependence on my interaction with a higher dimension. Thus my art making is dependant upon direction from my dream life which guides and directs the fabric of my being in an on time experiences captured in real time. My connection to my dreamlife is like a blueprint that has already been plotted out. Thus allowing me to aesthetically receive and record past, present and future phenomena. Which gives credence as to is why I follow the directives given in my dream life.
To give a brief background and narrative to dream life for those that aren’t familiar. By the end of our lives, it is estimated that most of us will have spent 50,000 hours dreaming. That is six years spent amongst the night-time visions which disturb, delight and perplex us. Formed in our minds and yet alien to them, the dream's enduring mysteries have long captivated artists and writers. Although there has been much interest in the dream throughout history, this process still remains partly unintelligible and mysterious. There has been a lack of interest in the western world when it comes to dreams, still commonly associated with the superfluous mental production. In comparison, this cognitive process had been given a much greater place in the sociocultural fabric of other cultures.
.
My aims are as follows;
Research , analyze and present a comparative analysis of the studies of serialism and precognitive dreams by JW Dunne s theory, Freud and Jungian western psychoanalysis, and my parabolic metaphoric dream analysis methodology. Compare 20th century and contemporary schools of thought in the arts to my own point of departure and methodology. Which I believe will add new knowledge to the field of art making. The research component will investigate various cultural belief systems which can affects the understanding of our dreamlife. My scope will be inclusive of Hebrew, indigenous, western psychoanalysis and my own dream analysis methods. Iwill include an overview of the theories of 20th century artist have addressed a higher dimension by giving an overview of the work KKandinsky’s spiritual in art, Wilma Klimt’s spiritual abstractions, Charles Burchfield and the Surrealist art movement.I will also give a breadth of oversite as to how contemporary artist are working with dreams today.
My approach and methodology is cleary unique to almost all of the above.
Research Bibliography:
Hilma Klimt https://imagejournal.org/2019/06/19/visions-of-hilma-af-klint/
JW Dunn ,An experiment with time; https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.524576
Wassily Kandinsky- Concerning the spiritual in art
Surrealist movement
Onieronaut-podcast-ttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-social-change/id1502031582?i=1000543628360
Element(rock) research:
Culture of stone-https://www.dukeupress.edu/a-culture-of-stone
Concrete processing of action metaphors: Evidence from
ERPhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006899319301283
(http://www.ifrao.com/rock-art-research-journal/
Metaphoric methodology;
Concrete processing of action metaphor:rhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006899319301283
Article sleep meeting;https://www.sleepmeeting.org/study-finds-novel-evidence-that-dreams-reflect-multiple-memories-and-anticipate-future-events/
"the possibility of spiritual transcendence in the modern world"
tps://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/3965005/jewish/Twelve-Precious-Jewels.htm
Process Practice project component
In my art practice I will analyze and access key qualities of my archived rock sketches as my initial portal of entry into a higher dimension’s.
I will investigate my personal dream journals and mark making archives that give history to reception, recording dating and interpretation of precognitive dream phenomena. And also respond to questions that ask what I do, how do I enter into higher dimensions, how do I reflect on my process, do I feel centers of tension as I sketch the rocks, is there a resonance in my mark making, is there a reverberation in the flux of my line that enters higher dimensions.
PART 1
Video installation;
The following text will overlay a selected continuous loop of archived rock sketches( showing dates)
-key qualities of my response to particular rocks on rock archive loop ….tension…flux….flight….depth…..organic…..energy…… reverberation…….Grounding…….stabilization
Voice over narrative; (possible the above)
I have always practiced drawing lines non objectively. Sketching lines is my approach to loosening up and being my point of departure prior to initiating any of my artmaking. I begin with a clear unscripted tabula rasa within. My approach to drawing a line is working from the inside out, open ended with no determined end or boundary, this process is spontaneous and unguided free flowing , unregulated, and often curvilinear in appearance. In 2010 I had been looking for form to practice drawing with that didn’t include the human body. I initially entered the art world as a figurative expressionist. After re entering the art world around 2000 I searchd for a form to practice drawing with. At this time my sketching rocks began and was inspired by a dream I had in 2010. In the dream I remember seeing a vision of 2 rocks laying and gently touching each other one laying slightly upon the other. I began gathering rocks from my garden bed and would sketch this night vision repeatedly realistically, in varying positions initially as a point of departure going to the canvas or other mark making material. The way that I have sketched hundreds of rocks over the last two decades is as follows.When I touch the rock which I collect from my garden it must feel right. I must pick up a warmth and energy. As I proceed in my process of repetition of the rock I begin to see lines swing, flow and unintentionally overlap. I see the edges of the rocks and forms within the rock emerge and I begin to see through the rock and walk and dance through with the lightness of my hand to material surface. Often time when I see the edges of the rock, it causes me to wander into another space of reality seemingly distant, which calls on a preciseness in the touch from my eye to my hand to delve deeper. I begin to see internally another dimension of forms within the rocks surface, sometimes in reality my perception fades into a vision. With my eye I follow an invisible reverberating rhythm that I see flow from within the rock. I am able to see the lines flux and flow outwardly unfolding into another realm of existence. This sometimes releases the materials I am working with to unfold into places of discovery. After time, sometimes days of observation I am able to see and discover various abbreviated marks that resemble of past, present and future phenomena.
PaRT 2 Painting series;
Series of painting that depict dreams i has during Transart mfa 2022-23 program . Thus showing and proving my dream life is Intimately connected with creation my dimension of reality andreleases on many levels insight regarding current, past and future, personal , social, economical and geological events.
Title- “Shift” 4x5’ canvas. Description; Mount Denali breaking apart in platelets Inspired from dream 11/2/22
Title- “To deep” 3x4' inspired from a dream I had 12/2/ 2022 ( considred a direction dream)
Note;The metaphoric dream analysis methodology iimply will be depicted in painting with image and text.
Project dissemination:
- I will organize a workshop online in April as a Prelude to final research project and installation.
- Rock archive video, and painting installation at LJMU as part of my final presentation.