Saturday, April 29, 2006

Artists

I had a dream last night (really like two hours ago) that longtime friend Tiff and I were celebrating our bdays jointly by engaging in a little art project & friendly competition. Tiff and some friends of hers had come up w/ the idea to create 'task folders' for us both (but Tiff had been involved? hmm), w/ artistic prompts that we were supposed to interpret as we saw fit. We were to then transfer our interpretations to the sidewalks of the East Village using colored street chalk. I noticed that her set--in the dream, they were actually those flimsy pastels--was more robust than mine, as I was handed colored pencils. We started in, and I found myself writing down sentences (don't remember the words), first in cursive, then in careful (pencils so breakable against pavement!) printing. That's all my interpretations consisted of--words. Tiff, on the other hand, was visually crafty, drawing these explosively colorful images on the wall of a nearby building (cheat!) as well as on the pavement below (I think). She'd also turned out a couple of really great portraits on paper, defying the rules yet again. :) I recall being a touch envious, though not at all bitter about it. (Tiff has always been a gifted drawer; back in middle school, I was always trying to adopt her techniques, yet never w/ the desired results. I remember she had a very particular style when it came to drawing heads--catlike eyes, expressive mouths, zany hair.) Still, I was disappointed in my own unadorned output, wishing for something livelier, more colorful.

I woke up shortly after, loving the lingering vividness of the imagery in my mind. The most entertaining dream I've had in awhile. As to what it all means, well, I'll carry it around w/ me today and see what I come up w/. Clearly it has something to do w/ acknowledging different forms of interpretation, yet feeling like my own--ahem, my writing--has a lot of evolving to do, and like my approach is at present too careful (breakable), not free enough. Ah well, years ahead of me still. Years and years.

Posted by princess kanomanom @ 10:29 AM