Sneak peak of Atrium Gallery mixed media/collage journal page "Ghosts of the North, Part I" (2011) inspired by a dream about my husband.
Dreams make the perfect subject matter for collaging; their surreal (unreal) quality can give you a great jumping-off point for creating art.
Why bother collaging your dreams (or nightmares)? Well, a seemingly random series of images coming together in our mind to form events that don’t initially make sense, might suddenly if we choose to explore them through the process of collaging. It’s most exhilarating to transform your dreams into some kind of material reality so you can investigate them further. As you begin to search for the right pieces to capture the mood and territory of your dreamscapes, you may find that their messages becoming clearer. The more deeply you probe these worlds by uncovering the symbolic meaning behind characters, objects or places you find in them, the more meaning you may derive to decode their cryptic messages. I’ve noted some of my dreams are easily decipherable, while others are complete mysteries. For example, I often dream about all my teeth falling out: a not-so-subtle reminder to visit the dentist! And yet, I don’t know why a neon-eyed crocodile chases me across a deserted pier in the midst of a stormy sea! Someone once told me that our nightly world of dreams is as real as our waking reality. Further, that we can consciously travel through them in the same way we do in our day time world. In some dreams, I find myself travelling at the speed of light on feet that glide silently above the surface of the ground; other times, I’m falling from a mysterious mountaintop as a stranger watches… no matter what the scenario, my senses are as alive in my dreams as they are in “reality”; my body vulnerable, yet also super-human. One day I’d like to explore this double world theory of dream and reality and see where it leads.
When recording a dream, I recall the information using as many senses as I can to get a clear picture of it in my mind. Writing in stream of consciousness style frees up my ability to write more descriptively. While writing, I don’t pay too much attention to punctuation, grammar or sentence structure: I allow the details to flow from within. Sometimes I find a word, phrase or quote can sum up an image more beautifully than a sentence or paragraph. When referring to physical descriptions of dream characters or places, I reference the names of friends, relatives, actors, movies, TV or familiar artwork to describe them – this helps in the search for imagery later on. At the collaging stage, my journal is my guide but it doesn’t necessarily rule my choice for imagery. Rather, it gives me clues as to where to start exploring for images. I read it over and over until its atmosphere, emotions and characters come alive in my mind; here, working to music that evokes the emotions I felt in my dream really helps. You can’t expect to find every image you need to compose your dream; sometimes using two or three images is enough to set off a whole series of thoughts regarding its mood/spirit. The rest can be filled in with other aspects of your dream: textures, colours, references to its time period, etc.. Sometimes my substrate (paper or canvas size) determines how much imagery I can use (I work small: 2.5 x 3.5 or 8.5 x 6 inches); that means I end up editing all kinds of great images out my collages – but that’s okay; as in writing, editing imagery is a vital part of the process. Besides, leaving out information allows the dream to retain its mysterious qualities. Compositionally, I never fully plan my collage journal pages; I enjoy working intuitively: letting each image dictate what the next should be and where it should fall. This process is much like experiencing a dream – you never know where it will lead you! Often I find I’ll use an image that wasn’t initially in my dream but feels right … sometimes, I wonder if the process of collaging has released this new information from my unconscious mind offering me new insight into my dream. This happened recently when a dead hare and star chart materialized themselves in my journal page: “Ghosts of the North”.
I highly recommend collaging your dreams – it can be such a thrilling, insightful and cathartic experience. Your dream journal doesn’t have to be overflowing… in the last two years, I’ve collected a mere 10 excerpts of my most vivid dreams… 10 gold nuggets worth of ideas to work from for future projects when I feel blocked!
Quick Tips: Collaging a Dream Journal:
– Find a journal you’re comfortable with.
– Place your recording tools beside your bed (pen/paper or digital recording device).
– Record your dreams as soon as you wake.
– Describe it in Stream of Consciousness Style (little to no editing).
– Make comparisons/use a word/phrase to describe characters/events/places in your dream.
– Describe your dream using your five senses.
– Keep your dream journal handy collaging; use it as a guide not a bible.
– Keep a dream dictionary handy or use Google to help decipher dream symbols.
– Be prepared to edit some visual information out of your collage.
– Use music to create the right emotional atmosphere to work in.
Further Inspiration:
Film director Tarsem Singh conjures up the most incredible dream-like imagery in his movies. Check out his trailers: The Cell and The Fall – they’re breathtakingly inspiring!
On-line Dream Dictionary References:
Dream Hawk
The Curious Dreamer
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