Dream On...Creative Dreaming

My secret to getting many things done in a single day-  I do not sleep many hours.  When I do experience a really deep sleep however,  it is sure to be accompanied by great or strange dream, all in color, of course! I try to dream possible, not impossible. This meaning that I plan to use my dreams in a creative way later, making my dream a possible useful element in my creative endeavors.   I try to incorporate my dreams from my "sleep life" into my "awake life", it helps me create.

Dreams are a great source of information about yourself and what you're doing in your world, as well as a stimulus for creativity. Their vocabulary is everything you have ever done, seen, thought, and felt, etc. --in other words, an ever-changing palette totally unique to you.   Dreams may reveal inspirations, give you motivation or spark a new notion or solution.  Learn to pay attention to them, even if in part so that your dreams can become as possible as you want them to be, in helping you become more creative.


As I attempt to discover links between any of my waking and dreaming minds (which are totally separate ideals)  it becomes a highway with an increasing amount of traffic of creative ideas.  This also gives me the feeling of being more connected and complete.  Recreating something out of my dreams or out of my norm is a whole creative journey upon itself.  Your brain is brilliant.  Dreaming for possibilities gives you drive and focus.

I have created from time to time items based on an image, or a thought, from a dream.  As an example, I recall one dream including a group of many women, each wearing large and decorative hats.  Each lady showing off unique, strange and colorful creations- all atop their heads.  The ideas stimulated by that dream were easy to replicate in clay even if they were not exact because the whole idea from the dream-like image, was out-of-the- norm for me and I knew just how I wanted to be inspired from it.  To make it work for me- the completed art was turned into a series of Club Creative Studio brooch pins.

The techniques I used in the above art were color mixing my own shades, sculpting as relief, stamping, carving, caning, and mixed media (added wire and beads). This creation ended up becoming an accessory piece of jewelry as a brooch pin.

While the image above was symbolic of the images I saw in my mind as a random dream there is also a term that can be used to describe a different type of dream, "intentional dreaming".

To induce intentional dreaming try the following:

1. Write, read, or think about a topic you're interested in just before going to sleep (writing seems to work best)
This serves to bring your brain's attention to the subject and put it on notice that you're serious about whatever the topic.

2. When you first wake up, or in that beginning stage of waking/drifting:
Notice the first image or scene that comes to you even if it seems unrelated, and if you write down what you "see" you will remember the image longer. Analyzing dreams and decoding them is a science and I can't give you answers on deciphering them or interpreting them but number three point may help you understand more.

3. I can tell you that if you ask yourself specific questions before sleep, you may awake to hold some insight into the requested answers you seek.  The information you sift through may not seem to be anything that you asked for but you have to associate and relate your images to understand  what it "means" to you.  How do the dream images fit back in to the story of your dream?

4. Another way to begin getting the outer and inner parts of your brain closer together is to draw (and/or write) a scene(s) from your dream.   This seems to put your brain more firmly in the track of  documenting and integrating your symbolic experiences. Call it a "dream book".  Use a notebook,  decorate it and review it to see how you can incorporate your dreams and visions in to your daily creative life.  Dream on!  Dream Possible! Dream with a creative purpose!