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Dream Paintings

Most of the following are simply paintings of dream scenes, but some are paintings of paintings seen in dreams, like Shy Sphinx; some, paintings of other kinds of art seen in dreams, like Saint Bridget's painting of a mosaic. Still others are dreams of paintings that the dreamer recorded another way, like Frida's Prison Paintings--a purely digital sketch of a large painting seen in a dream.

How to paint dreams? I think artists should consider this rule-of-thumb used by science fiction and fantasy writers: "If your premise is outrageous, simplify your style; story and style shouldn't compete." I think it's true of dream-art too. Familiar sights can be stylized; but weird scenes need no embellishment; overdoing it may just confuse viewers.

Most dream-paintings on this list are acrylic not oil. It may be a need for immediacy. When you wake with a vision, spending weeks on an oil painting (with no photo refs to keep the dream scene fresh!) just seems harder than to get it all down that morning in acrylic, even if it's a bit rougher. When I've needed oil effects, I've faked it with acrylic, either by blending really fast before it dries (fingers work better than brushes), or by adding a SMALL drop of dish soap to the water used for thinning--that slows the drying of acrylic paint from minutes to hours, if not the days you get with oil. Or buy an acrylic retardant... but they're basically thin soap sold at paint prices.

RELATED TOPICS: watercolor and silk-dyeing - pencil and charcoal - pure digital art - ink - felt pen and colored inks - photocollages and altered photos - comics - posters and picture-poems - sculpture - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 3300+ dreams plus 1000 more pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2013.



ABOVE SOCIETY: by Jayci Ferrimani; c. 1998, painting of a flying dream with a point
I flew over a forest. I noted the trees were all the same, and told myself to remember this...
AFTER BIRTH: by Wayan, 2004/9/29, astral acrylic painting
Never mind an afterlife! What if, before life, we were spirits with no idea what happens after birth?...
THE AIR BURUNDI PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 7 illus., 2007/1/20, a dream of art & courage
Weird paintings cover a hill town in Africa, demanding I paint them when I wake.
Paintings on courage, flight... and defying tradition.
AMERICAN TANKA: by Wayan; dreamed 1989/7/26, painting-poem-story on 30" disk, 1995.
I dreamed I circumnavigated the entire Buddhist wheel of existence in a single night...
ANCIENT RUINS, AND A GIFT FROM DEEP OCEAN:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; two dreams (2016/11/19, 2017/1/18) on dreamwork, memory & amnesia
1: Ruins in India. Fascinating but age-blurred; wish I could see the carvings better...
2: Giving presents at a party, I hand a girl a vertebra from the abyss, encrusted with jewel-like barnacles...
ANGELUNE: by Wayan; 1999 acrylic painting
The joyful animal-angel I feel myself to be in my happiest dreams.
ARBORETUM CAT: by Wayan; 1999/4/14, an acrylic nondream landscape.
Golden Gate Park's arboretum, in San Francisco, is home to feral cats, skunks, raccoons, people...
ARCH: by Wayan; dreamed 1998/8/10, painted 1999, acrylic on wood.
I dreamed that as a kid I saw two girls making love in the bushes, awakening my own sexual orientation.
Later, I saw the bigger picture, which wasn't about sex at all...
CAUTION: SEX
ARENNA, FREED: by Wayan; 1991/11/6, a magical pastlife/flying/freedom dream.
I learn to fly from Arenna the moon-girl and Crest the dragon, in the House of Deep Memory...
THE ARRIVAL: by Elizabeth Gibbons, 2014; a spiritual dream about dreams
I'm a priestess from an island of women; I meet an angel
who charges me to harvest all the dreams of the world...
ASK ME ANYTHING: by Wayan; 1975/1/31, a backstage dream.
It was a dark and stormy night. I was lost, till I stumbled on God
in her underground control room. God was helpful. Too helpful...
AWKWARD ENLIGHTENMENT: by Wayan; 2010/1/13; a dream of spiritual and practical advice
Anxious about a big party, I dream of being crowded. But
a cat-centaur in the crowd attains sudden enlightenment...
BANANA MOON: by Wayan; painting of dream figures, 1998, acrylic on wood, 36 x 48"
My figure-painting class here in San Francisco has a diverse student body, but not THIS diverse...
CAUTION: NUDITY
BARING THE BREAST: by Carla Young, 2010/2/27; dream painting and scene
I'm half-naked at an arty dinner party, talking to a man I really think I ought to recognize... who is he?
CAUTION: TOPLESS JUNGIAN
BEAR IN THE MUSEUM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/6/7; painting in the Box of Dreams
There's a large bear wandering the museum, and somehow I feel good about it...
BERNAL ISLET IN 2250: by Wayan; 2007/4/2, an epic undream painting
My neighborhood becomes a Huck Finn Eden after global warming turns it into a tropical island...
CAUTION: NUDITY, AMBITOPIA
BERRY DANCE: by Wayan; 2009/12/17; a nightmare turns to go-go-dance
My kidnappers were desperate: no jobs. I fled them down the berry chute, to the underground
strawberry factory where engineers in go-go boots did the berry dance. And the berries...
CAUTION: STRAWBERRY FETISH
THE BIOSPHERE VARIATIONS: by Wayan; 2004-, sculpture-photo-drawing-travelog-webtours:
Tour bizarre worlds most exobiologists would dismiss as hopeless for life--and meet the natives...
CAUTION: SEXY ALIENS, WEIRD CUSTOMS, EVOLUTION
BLOODLINES: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2005/7/30, 9/1 and 9/3; a compound dream-painting
A man obsessed with blood and death disturbs me, but I have to admit I share his interests...
Next the blood comes home; a surgeon wants to flay my tongue...
Next, witch-children rebel against a bloody flossing ritual and fly away on broomsticks...
BLUE SKIES: by Georganna Malloff; 1980?, painting of a slightly predictive dream.
I dreamed of a bear playing a cello concert.
The next day at a concert I was surprised to see that the cellist...
A BODICE RIPPER: by Carla Young, 2010/2/22; epic (and episodic) dream with 5 paintings
Awkward newlyweds. Not a love match! Can they co-operate to save a woman from the Nazis?...
BORN IN A CAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/4/20 to 2007/8/9, a painted series of rite-of-passage dreams.
I keep dreaming of awkward but successful transitions into new life, and paint them all in one landscape...
BOX OF DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007 to 2009, a boxed set of 19 small dream-paintings
A sequence of short dreams full of creatures. They warn I'll face leukemia...
BRIGHT NICHES IN THE CASTLE WALL: by Jenny Badger Sultan; summer 2003; a series of dreams.
Dreams warning of mania and paralyzing shame alternate with calm dreams of life and growth...
CATRISE: by Wayan; 2000/2/21, a sexy flying dream; acrylic painting.
I'm an alien exchange student in Palo Alto High School. I get stared at--they wear clothes, they don't fly...
CAUTION: FELINE NUDITY
CELEBRATE BOTH: by Henry Sultan, 2005/6/26, a painting that blends two dreams
At a snake-weaving party I flirt with my anima, who tells me how the
cake fell off the roof. I think "At last we're really connecting!"...
CHART THE GROWTH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2004, painting of an incubated, oracular dream
I asked my dreams "What's my truest purpose?"
I dreamed my body was a tree, and a voice said "Chart the growth"...
CHRYSALIS: by Wayan; 1999 acrylic painting of two dreams, 1997/10/6 and 1997/11/8.
Ballooning over Middle Earth with a metamorphosing butterfly-girl, we drift into forbidden territory:
THE CITY, NOT LONG AFTER: by Wayan; 1998/4/22-30, acrylic cityscape of our flooded future.
What my home town will become, if you fools keep burning gas and spewing CO2...
CLIMB DOWN THE PINNACLES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, l995/12/24, a surreal dream and painting
Decision by decision, we made our way down immense rock crags. Below, I had to put out a deadly fire,
a fire as solid as wood or stone, with a white staff. What am I really trying to calm?
CLOSE THE GATE: by Emily Joy; 2004/11/19, a dream of decision.
My foxy lover teases and tempts, but I can't let him into the patio for fear he'll hurt the rabbits…
CAUTION: UNFUNNY BUNNY PUNS
CLOTHO AND THE POOL OF DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan;
a 2015 painting weaving seven dreams (2014/5/4, 6/9, 7/1 & 9/4; 2015/5/23, 6/26 & 8/25)
A portrait of Clotho, the Greek Fate who spins our life-threads, by a pool woven of my dreams from this time...
THE COMING DARK: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2002/3/2; a dream on one disaster averted, and one... not.
I climb down a cliff before night strands me; but in town, risky adolescent games cause a crash...
COMING TO THE JUMPING OFF PLACE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 92/5/1, painting of an escape dream
Trapped on an island, spied on and controlled, we decide to jump off
a cliff and die; but as we jump, a spirit sneaks us off be reborn...
CORPSES IN THE UPPER ROOM: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1995/1/30, a dreamlet of death/regeneration
Bodies are laid out upstairs in a dirt bed. Potatoes will sprout.
The plants won't feed on the bodies, but they will support the vines...
CRESCENT CAT: by Wayan; 2011/2/17, a painting critiqued by a dream
My dream critiques a non-dream artpiece. Does it only count as dream-art
when your dream urges changes, or is creativity partly knowing when to stop?
DAD FALLS ASLEEP AT THE PODIUM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/3/8; painting in the Box of Dreams
My father is supposed to speak, but he falls asleep onstage. I rush up to try and rouse him, but...
DARE TO BE FAT!: by Wayan; spinoff picture from a 1997/8/20 dream.
I was an anorexic fox-girl, till this phrase galvanized me. Now I pump iron and eat what I like, and...
DATE GHOST: by Wayan; 1983/11/26, nondream surreal painting of a shyness fit
I tried to date a nice young butterfly but was stopped by a monster who was... my own wings?
CAUTION: UNDERAGE BUG
DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN TOWER: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2004/7/6, a dream of grounding
The boy and I walk a spiral trail down the mountain to the caves of tears...
DOCTOR VENTRIL: by Wayan; 1978/9/22, a nightmare where I'm the nightmare.
A doctor lures me into his office. What he turns out to be scares me less than how I defend myself...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, ARACHNOPHOBIA
DOG IN A CASSOCK: by Wayan, 1972/2/3, a comically surreal dream-poem
A master criminal is tracked down by a hound in a monk's robe
who's introduced to me as... the President of the United States?
DOOR OF ETERNITY: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2000s, a painting on dreamwork's layeredness.
"If you put an ear to the door of books and the doors of the night,
if you pay attention, you can hear the conversation of poets..."
DRACULA'S SANDWICH: by Brenda Ferrimani; 1997/8/22, a death/rebirth nightmare-painting
Dinner with Dracula goes well, considering, except for the mayonnaise. But suddenly I'm drowning!
No one sees or hears me. Am I a ghost, am I dead or alive? And how would anyone notice?
THE DREAM: by Henri Rousseau; 1910, a (collaborative?) dream painting
Rousseau's painting of that woman on a red sofa in a glorious jungle may be dream-based...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SLACKING
DREAM CLARITY, or, the Field of Psychotherapy: by Wayan; 1996/11/27, a dream on dreams
While we're making crop-circles in the field of psychotherapy, my hypnotist and I start to argue...
DREAM OF ABYSSES: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007, a dream-drawing.
Girondé dreams she's floating through the oceanic abyss...
DREAM OF THE ARCS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1994/7/5, a warning dream on power
A nun-like figure shows me three arcs; two are forms of direct power,
but the third, innermost arc can lead to secrecy and manipulation...
DREAM OF THE DANCE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2006/10/16, a dream-painting
After our trip to Turkey, I dreamed I was dancing in
a heavy black robe like those the Turkish women wore...
DREAM OF THE DANCING GODDESSES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/12/19, a dream-painting
I sneak into a dance rehearsal. Huge colorful cloth goddesses dance,
while four fat women wearing only scarves weave round them...
CAUTION: NUDITY
THE DREAMSUIT: by Wayan; 1992/7/12, a dream on unconscious programming.
An experimental helmet knocks me out. I'm groggy, miserable, till I learn what it did to others...
DRIVER'S TEST: by Wayan; 1984/1/8, a comical Kafka dream.
It's not easy to get a California driver's license, ever since the Dept. of Motor Vehicles went Jungian...
THE EDUCATION OF A DREAM: by Wayan; 1998/7/7, a dream on dreams.
A young, naive, ethereal dream gets an Animus to guide her through the crazy material plane...
CAUTION: GRATUITOUS WILLIAM SHATNER
ELEGANTE (ELLE EST GAUNTE): by Wayan; 1983/1/8, nondream body-image painting.
Every year, as Americans get fatter, the fashion gets thinner (and I look more normal)...
EMOTIONAL PALETTE: by Wayan; 2000/3/22, an indescribable dream.
My spirit-wife and I spend our last evening together painting. Not with colors--with emotions...
ELF EYE: by Wayan; 2002/5/20, dream figure in acrylic on wood
I like the idea that a painting's a window into a world. That the window opens both ways. That eyes in paintings may be watching us.
AN ELK SHOWED ME A SIGN OF PEACE: by Georganna Malloff; 1985?, painting of a vision
In the Rockies, in winter, I was freezing until I found hot springs. In the steam rising, I saw a vision of an elk...
ENLIGHTENMENT: by Brenda Ferrimani; 1999/3/9, painting of a non-apocalyptic dream
A crowd watches from shore as a great glowing meteor descends into the sea. I fear a tsunami, but...
EVASION: by Marie-Claude Girondé, summer 2008?, a dream painting.
One pays for soaring high with solitude of the soul...
FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity
I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me...
FANTASTIC RIDE: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream painting.
The dreamer overflows from her egg, spills out to become a waterfall, a stampede of horses...
FIGURE DRAWING: REDHEAD SITS IN DIAMOND: by Wayan, 1999/5/12, acrylic figure-study
A sophisticated composition for a sophisticated model. Or at least seasick...
CAUTION: NUDITY, NAUSEA...
FIGURE DRAWING: BIG SQUARE STUDIO: by Wayan; 1999/5/17; acrylic figure sketch
In life drawing class, the model built a sort of green island/nest in the sea of grubby students...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
A FIRE ENTIRELY WITHOUT HEAT: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/9/11; painting in the Box of Dreams
On the anniversary of 9/11, I dreamed a friend was welding nude. In his careful hands, the fire was harmless...
FISH INTO SNAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1994/11/4; a dream painting
I'm talking to a friend while waiting in line, when a huge fish appears. It turns into an equally huge snake...
FISHERGIRL IN WATERCOLOR; OVAL: by Wayan; 1996, watercolor of a 1996/7/15 dream scene.
A watercolor portrait of Leaf and me on our boat in the lost city, from the dream FISHERGIRL...
CAUTION: TRIBAL NUDITY
FLAMINGOS: by Wayan; 1998; nondream acrylic, 20 x 30".
Part an experiment in wild textures, part a "Where's Waldo" game to see if you'd notice my self-portrait...
FLUID DREAM CONNECTIONS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2003/11/8 and 2007/3/14; linked dreams of pods
A pod of whales in the sky and a circle of children dressed like seed-pods both beg me to interpret them...
FOOT CREVASSE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/11; painting in the Box of Dreams
I dream my foot has a huge bloody crevasse. But I study it calmly...
THE FOREST BRIDE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1994/7/23 & 1994/12/10; opposing solstice dreams
In the midsummer dream, I'm at a wedding in the Russian forest;
in winter, I dream I hold an emaciated girl as she breathes her last...
FOUR-ARMED SINGER: by Wayan; 1996/5/16; a dream of baring your soul .
In our mutant future, a lovely horse-tailed four-armed girl sings her heart out--as clubgoers ignore her...
CAUTION: NUDE CABARET
FOX-SHEPHERDESS AND RAVEN: by Wayan; 1998, wet-on-wet acrylic of daydream.
I don't know if the fox-shepherdess ate all her sheep, or if she herded invisible and quite different things...
FRIDA'S PRISON PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 2010/11/19, a Frida Kahlo-inspired dreamlet
Frida Kahlo's battered sister Cristina dances nude--and gets jailed by the
Office of Homeland Security! Frida protests by painting her in prison...
GERMAN AT THE DOOR: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/19; painting in the Box of Dreams
A hulking, intimidating young man is at my door, with two scary dogs. Wait, is that Carl Jung?...
THE GIFTED CHILD: by Brenda Ferrimani, 2013?, a painting of an incubated dream
Previous dreamwork had made it clear my mother had betrayed me; I asked
my dreams how to protect myself from those who do not love me...
GREAT GODDESS, or, SACRIFICE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1970; an epic painting of a troubling dream
I'm a priestess standing on a stone terrace, holding a ritual axe. Before me kneels a sacrifice to the Goddess...
GREEN, GREEN, SPIRIT OF THE SPRING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed 1991/2/3, 1995/8/13 and 1995/11/10
I meet a girl with a plant growing out of her head...
Someone prays to the spirit of a spring to heal me...
I watch people practice exercises with the ritual feel of voudun or candomble...
THE HAND THAT WAKES: by Wayan; 1997; acrylic study of what makes us forget dreams.
I was painting to a sad scary song by Laurie Anderson that goes "This is the hand... the hand that takes..."
HANK AND THE BENGAL TIGER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/2/27; painting in the Box of Dreams
At a party, I go hunting for my husband and find him on a terrace facing a Bengal tiger...
HEADEGG (Black-Eyed Bird of Pain): by Wayan; 1983/10/24; acrylic painting of a headache-trance.
I was cartooning with a headache. It took over and started drawing for me...
HER LOVELY AWKWARD SYNTH, by Wayan, 2009/3/9; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #43
A musical prodigy has a gorgeous, unplayable keyboard.
But serious creativity takes a dull, regular, ergonomic instrument...
HERM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/9/8; painting in the Box of Dreams
In a domed tower, we all look up bewildered by a statue like an ancient herm, floating in mid-air...
HERON HAREM: by Wayan; 1981/6/14, a dream with a moral.
I'm a heron working in the Civil Service. I want to blow the whistle, but then how would I support my...
CAUTION: BIRD-SLAVERY?
HOMAGE TO CAMILLE: by Wayan, spring 2003. Portrait of a half an anima
A portrait of my dream-friend Silky, using a technique learned from artist Camille Porter.
HUGE OVOID SHAPE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1999/8/13 Magrittesque surreal sci-fi dream
A huge white ovoid like a tethered cloud hangs over a city street. We enter it and search for the crew...
HUMBLE THREE-EYED GIRL: by Wayan; 2008/12/30, a dream on giftedness and shame
I meet a circle of students with up to five eyes. The lone three-eyed girl
is embarrassed, indeed ashamed she's merely attained enlightenment...
IN THE COURSE OF WORK: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream sculpture
Is that a madwoman riding a horse, or a cougar pouncing on a deer,
or are these dream-creatures wildly making love?
IO: by Wayan; 2007-2015, a model of Jupiter's moon Io
I'm fascinated by Io's feverish colors and tumultuous landscape, so I sculpted
a detailed portrait and came to some tentative conclusions about what we see...
CAUTION: AMATEUR SCIENCE, OH NO!
JASHA EXPLAINS DEATH: by Wayan; ca. 1974/10/1; a 10-page painted comic with recurrent dream figures
Deep Duck's interview with Jasha the Krelkin goes rogue, as she urges tossing out human habits like... death?
CAUTION: REDWOOD-SPRITE SEX, PEEING ON TREES, DRUNK DUCK
KARMA AND HER SISTERS: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/27, a happy sexy flying dream that turned tragic.
One boring lonely day, I meet a cute teenage bunny who wants to play with me! But half an hour later…
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, INTERSPECIES FLIRTING, AND LOSS
KITSUNE (FOX-GIRL) BY MOONLIGHT: by Wayan; 2002/5/1 dream prompting a paint experiment
In a Japanese house I met a charming red-headed girl and had this
weird urge to scratch her pointed ears. Oh! She's a kitsune!...
LANDSCAPE FROM A DREAM: by Paul Nash; recurrent dreams 1895-9, painted summer 1937
As a child, Paul Nash dreamt he flew over rural southern England.
As an adult surrealist painter...
LATER IN THE DAY, WE'LL CROSS OVER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/7/16; painting in the Box of Dreams
I know we will cross the water surrounding the heart of Jerusalem, but not yet...
LAURA: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/10/24; painting in the Box of Dreams
As we climb down the steep mountainside, clutching bushes to keep from falling,
I ask Laura "Do you want another child?"
LEAN ON ME: by Wayan; 120K; 1987, 1992. Recurring dream image..
This couple keeps appearing in my dreams--as equals, as mount and rider, as friends, as enemies, as lovers...
CAUTION: NUDITY
LET ILLNESS GO: by Wayan; 1999. Acrylic/digital painting of a meditation not a dream.
Illness is such a handy excuse when you need solitude, care, rest, or just time to think... but...
LET ME DREAM!: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007?, a dream painting.
The dreamer becomes a horse, the horse becomes a unicorn.
Dreams have their own quests apart from the conscious...
LIBERTÉ: by Marie-Claude Girondé, c. 2005?, a dream painting.
"Freedom is a gift you give yourself." But it doesn't always involve seahorses or babycarriages covered in quills...
LES LICORNES: by Marie-Claude Girondé, fall 2007, a dream painting.
Three unicorns gallop out of the waves...
LILIES, DREAMER, FOX: by Wayan; 1998, acrylic on 46" plywood disk, life study.
She didn't want to be there. She closed her eyes and went elsewhere. So I painted where she went...
CAUTION: NUDITY
LITTLE BROWN RABBITS IN THE MEADOW: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/20; painting in the Box of Dreams
I visit a friend's ramshackle cottage--trees grow through the walls. But glorious meadows! Spring at last...
LION NOW, EMANCIPATION LATER: by Wayan; 2000/5/5, two dreams as my dad lay dying
We must hunt a man-eating lion to protect our village--our village full of slaves. But
we can't deal with our looming social crisis now--gotta focus on the lion in front of us..
CAUTION: SLAVERY, ILLNESS, DEATH
LUCID LIVING: by Wayan; 2007/4/8, a quasi-lucid dream of the future with 9 illustrations
Honesty induces a joyful state with lucidlike powers.
So I bike across the Lake of Time, open the book of my future, and see...
CAUTION: SEXY SKETCHES FROM THE FUTURE
THE MAD UNVEILERS: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting.
The dancers, in a frenzy, stripped themselves. Not just their clothes; themselves...
MAGIC WEB: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1984, a lost dream
A colorful magic web I saw in a dream and painted; but I've been unable to trace the dream so far in my journals...
THE MAN WITH THE SNAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2002/9/3, dream of an aborted shamanic duel
I stood in the desert preparing for a contest with a man and his snake. But he cheated! Then my cat Lulu intervened...
MANDALA DURING A TIME OF WAR AND DISINTEGRATION:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; Jan-Feb 2003, painting of a dream-series
My dreams were troubled by war. So I painted them in concentric rings--lotus, fire, children, animals, and nightmares...
MANDALA OF THE EIGHT DREAMERS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/9/16, painting of a group's dreams
Our dream-group's dreams had a lot of imagery in common: circles, groups, meditation. I fused them into this piece...
MARY MCBRIDE AND THE SPIRITUAL EARTH MOVEMENT: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2011/11/26, dream of a kindred artist
I met a woman whose art (and her love for the Earth) inspired me to start a series of paintings with creatures hidden in landscapes...
THE MEDIEVAL POISONERS: by Carla Young, 2010/1/3; illustrated non-nightmare
Two medieval women poison one another. One dies in my arms; the other may just survive. Why did they...?
CAUTION: MURDERERS
MEDITATION: by Marie-Claude Girondé, spring 2007, a dream painting.
A jungle cat needs to take time out from a hard day's predation to have a quiet smoke...
THE MER BUILDING: by Wayan; 2001/2/23, a dream of a double life.
I'm a puma with a night job as a cellist. But my day job with The Architectives is the bizarre one...
MERMAID, MARE, AND SEA-STAR: by Wayan; 1983/3/23; daydream of sea-love
I was a mermaid summoning a great storm to carry my love to me--and my love was a red sea-mare...
THE MERMAID TOW: by Wayan; 1994/2/17, a rescue-fantasy dream.
I rescue some drowning kids by turning into a mermaid, but towing one girl has an unexpected effect...
MISFITS ON MARS: by Wayan; 1986/11/20, an epic dream; the climax of the dreamseries UNICORN TAG.
From the punk clubs of Frisco to the Safeways of Si Valley to the vermilion sands of Mars,
Silky the were-nightmare fights for the Misfits against every cliche in science fiction...
MOON AND FIRE RISING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed c.1994/3/10 (+ earlier dream images, one from 1969)
A dragon-woman showed me a cache of art. When I painted her face I recalled seeing it in a dream decades ago in a mirror...
CAUTION: DRAGON BREASTS
MOVING IN THE LANDSCAPES OF MY DREAMS:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 14 dreams (mostly Jan-Mar 2011) painted on one canvas
A dream urged me to paint a big landscape with cutout movable (magnetic) dream figures
and liftable flaps revealing hidden dream scenes...
MUSHROOM-SHAPED ROCK: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2000/4/14, a happy dream
I climb a huge mushroom-shaped rock rising from a hotspring and prepare to dive in...
MY DESIGN FOR THE DOME: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/5/1; a painting from an advisory dream
At first no one seems interested in my mural-design for the inside of the City Hall dome, but...
MY RITUAL BEHEADING: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1996/3/24, painting of a nightmare
We stood meekly in line to be beheaded. I tried to accept my fate and commended myself to God...
CAUTION: READ THE TITLE!
NAOMI, CAVES, AND LEMON TREES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1995/10/4, a joyful dream
I swim with my daughter Naomi in a desert pool amid lemon trees. She may be able to help me...
NEST, EGGS AND LEGS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; l993/9/7, a comic mystical dream
Two friends send energy through me, transforming me. Now that
my legs are detachable, I can sit comfortably on my eggs...
NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream.
At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when
our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace?
NIBBLING FRUITS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/2/3; a painting from an advisory dream
I am given a gift of "Nibbling Fruits" which only I may eat--because I've been feeding everyone but me...
NIGHT FLIGHT: by Catherine as told to Wayan; c. 1962, a recurrent childhood flying dream.
My friend Catherine dreamed she was a flying mare with golden hooves. But in real life, she lost them...
THE NIGHT OF CHANGE: by Wayan; 1994/2/8, a dream on the order of deep changes.
Festival night in a strange town, where, one night a year, dancing in the street transforms you into...
CAUTION: SEX TALK
OMELET BEACH: by Wayan; 2007/1/15, a dream on how things look through your third eye
An alien beach scene--as seen through eyes that see bodies' energy fields more than surface forms...
ON MOLLY'S FOREHEAD: by Wayan, 1988/11/19, a spiritual sex dream.
A child of radicals goes wild in Rio. When we bail her out, we find she's had a strange enlightenment...
CAUTION: UNSAFE SEX
OPEN THE DOOR!: by Wayan; April 2002, acrylic bas-relief of waking fantasy.
I salvaged a door. When I painted it, a fox-woman wanted to open it and get out...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
ORACLE--SEA CHANGE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1999/5/6, dream-based painting
At the beach, wading with my fellow dreamworker Stephanie.
The waves are getting bigger--are they a hazard, or can we ride them?
PANGOLIN: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1995/8/1, painting of an exploited creature
While visiting a friend in New Orleans in my dream, I saw a pangolin. I was very excited...
PEGASUS LANDS: by Roswila; early 1990s? A collaborative haiga [picture-poem] of a dream
Haiku by Roswila of a dream of meeting a winged horse, illustrated by her late friend Janet...
PEGGY'S CAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; l998/10/26 , a nightmare plus surrealist painting.
At a party I meet a friend I thought was dead. She's become a small talking rabbit made of cake, and I...
CAUTION: UGH
PERISSA: by Wayan; 1997/9/13, a sexy dream-comic (small screen, slow loading? Illus. text)
When Perissa, an exhibitionistic centaur, bares her body in a crowded Coliseum,
she also bares a human-supremacist plot...
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM
PIGEON WITH A HEAD LIKE QUEEN VICTORIA: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2010/7/26, painting of a pest
A pigeon with a head like Queen Victoria's keeps fastening onto
my clothing with its beak, and this nagging feels familiar...
I DREAMED MY PILLS WERE TAKING ME: by Wayan; 2004/3/13, a dirty lie.
A dream that'd explain why I quit taking Western medicines--
(and why haven't you?) Only I didn't dream it. Just lived it.
THE PLACE OF SPROUTING CORN: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/1/10 & 1989/6/28, twin initiatory dreams.
I'm shown corn plants growing from skulls, and it seems like I must plant some skull-corn myself...
POIROT AND THE DICKHEADS: by Wayan; 2010/3/11, a comic antilucid dream
I'm detective Hercule Poirot, but I'm losing my case and my brain--
because my story isn't by Agatha Christie, it's a knockoff...
CAUTION: PINK DILDO HATS
PORTRAIT OF LADY DRACANTHRA: by Wayan; 100K, mid-2001? Acrylic dream painting.
Among the family portraits in the hall of my ancestors was this one of a formidable old... woman, I guess.
THE POWER OF MOONLIGHT: by Carla Young, 2010/1/2; painting of a dream image
I wish I could be as body-free as my neighbor Jenna, hiking nude under the full moon...
THE POWER OF THE BUTTERFLY: by Lisa Gale Garrigues ("Cory"); winter 1997,
a dream of flying, shapeshifting and spiritual advice.
When a flood trapped me in my cabin, I dreamed I met an old man who warned me to let my butterflies go...
PRAYER: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting.
"Our resurrection is not entirely in the future; it's also in us, it begins, it's already begun..."
THE PRIMEVAL ANIMAL and the Survival of the Earth: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1999/4/28; an epic dream
A huge spiral nautilus needs healing; its coils are coming undone, and if it dies, all on earth may die with it...
PURR: by Wayan; Sept. 1981, watercolor of a dream.
I dreamed our family's black cat Persephone had to make a life-decision...
RADIANT LIGHT: DREAMING IN THE HYPOGEUM:
by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1999/5/15, 6/12 & 7/14, a painting based on 3 dreams
I'm in the Hypogeum, an ancient Maltese dream-temple. I join some women
staging a ritual; a little girl draped in a web plays the role of an insect...
RAPID TRANSIT: by Wayan; 1999, acrylic watercolor, 14x17", nondream trance painting.
I was just sitting, minding my own business when these golden wedge-birds divebombed me...
RAZI AND THE HOLY WINO OF SHASTA: by Wayan; 1994/9/1, a redemptive epic dream
20,000 years from now, a deer-harpist named Razi finds the Holy Wino's not quite the ruin he seems...
CAUTION: BAD PENGUINS, DEER NUDITY, RUDE DRUNK
RED OCHRE, CLEAR LIGHT: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2003/4/2 & 4/21; two possibly premonitory dreams
Mt Everest is snowfree and red; in the next dream I redden a sandstone cave with ochre. I feel uneasy...
REST TOO: by Wayan; 1999. Acrylic on 12" LP; a life-sketch with a lesson.
The mysterious glyphs above the model's head are dream-language, warning me to...
CAUTION: NUDITY
REVOLUTION IS MESSY: by Emily Joy; 2006/4/26, a political dream
When whites invade, two shapeshifting Native American cubs resist architecturally...
THE ROCKS OF EDEN: by Wayan; 1982/11/28; painting-poem, summing up a life-phase, yet not a dream.
A proud angry picture-poem during a hard time, when great gifts flowed through my hands...
SAINT BRIDGET: by Jenny Badger Sultan; between 1963-68, a dream on adversity's uses.
In a Scythian church, a painting says:
"Little St Bridget was bound so hard that when they released her she flew"...
THE SATURATION DIAL: by Wayan; 2015/11/7, a surreal lucid dream with a control knob!
Night. Two moons. I go lucid! Find a knob adjusting the dream's color saturation.
Dial it up--and find I'm not alone! Ghosts of pure color...
SHY SPHINX: by Wayan; 2009/11/27, a dream of indirect advice
I find a shy sphinx hiding in the corner of a painting in a dull art class. But maybe she's right to hide...
SILKY CROSSES THE ATLANTIC: by Wayan; dreamed 1982/8/24, painted 1994 (acrylic/ink/xerox).
After I fled my batterer, I was afraid to love--afraid I'd give up my freedom again for mere kindness...
SILKY SINGS WITH WEREWOLF BOY: by Wayan; 1998; dream figures on bedspread, 5'x7'
My anima the singing horse was encouraging a shy werewolf boy to give it a try...
CAUTION: UNCLAD HORSE CHANTEUSE
SILKY'S INVERSION: by Wayan; dreamed 2014/4/24, a surrealist dream
My anima, a black mare, is upside down, hanging on the ceiling! Rears downward.
And she's changed sex! Not a mare today, a stallion! A gay, humanophilic stallion...
CAUTION: VERY QUEER FLIRTATION
SNAKE PACKAGE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/5/27
I am given a dehydrated package of dried snake to insert in my vagina. Inside it will unfold and come to life...
CAUTION: KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
SNAKE POD TREE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/3/16, painting of a vivid dream image
In a desert, I find a tree with red purselike pods. But they all seem empty,
and I know they should each contain a vivid yellow snake...
SNAKE TREE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/10/31, a dream revisioning Eden
A woman up a tree has white flaky stuff camouflaging her.
It cracks and peels like snakeskin. What tree is this, exactly?
SO TIRED OF MY BONES: by Wayan; 1999/9/13. Ink painted on with cardboard wedges; acrylic wash.
In my drawing class it was antlers and bones and skulls, death death death till I was tired of MY bones...
SPARK OF THE DIVINE: by Carla Young, 2010/2/2; painting of a brief oracular dream
A voice told me, "Human beings have a spark of the divine"...
SPEAKING ABOUT ART WITH THE AFRICAN BEINGS:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2002/1/19, a dream-painting of a dream about dream-painting!
I'm teaching an art class full of strange masklike beings. We debate art
as spontaneous process, versus art as planned product...
SPIRIT FACE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/4/25 dream of a huge art project
I'm at the beach, collecting stones to make a gigantic face viewable only from the air...
SPLASH!: by Wayan; acrylic, 12" triangle, late 2002; dream painting.
While I study how humans went extinct, my daughter happily splashes in the sea...
SQUIGGLE BIRD: by Wayan; 480 x 640, 1997.
Just an abstract birdlike acrylic squiggle I liked. Sorry, no story...
SUBMERGED IN THE WAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/8/3, a comic nightmare
I'm holding a pornographic novel, trying to keep it dry, as huge waves
flood the room. The book and I are both going to get drenched...
SUMMONING SHADOW: by Jo Equinity; 2006. Three meditative paintings apparently cause a miracle.
I had to sell my horse Shadow, but I missed him so much I painted him. As I finished, a strange impulse led me...
SUN SINKS BENEATH THE EARTH--REMAINS OF MEN AND WOMEN:
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1997, a collage on a dream-idea
A phrase from a dream, "the remains of men and women," led to this image
of a black sun in the underworld amid strata of time and the psyche...
SURRENDER TO THE WHITE BUFFALO: by Kathleen Sullivan, 1970s?; a nightmare turned shamanic
A gigantic herd of buffalo stampede toward me. I panic, then surrender in peace to what is surely my death...
TELEPATH TREES: by Wayan; 125K, 1993/9/11, a how-the-other-half-lives dream.
I dream Edward Abbey shows me a secret grove of telepath trees.
That night, in my dreams inside my dream, they meet me...
THIEF OF DREAMS: by Wayan; 1996/11/29, a sexy soul-swap dream; a 22-page comic (or text w/pics)
I was a mermaid trying to find Count Coyote's stolen dreams, so I could marry my human girlfriend...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, LESBIAN MARRIAGE, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
THIRTEEN PEACE SIGNS IN A TIME OF WAR: by Wayan; early 2002, acrylic sgraffito on wood.
The animal goddess of peace, stubbornly raising her sign, my sign, as you all slide into your nice holy war...
THREE HORSE MARSH: by Wayan; 1983/9/27. Acrylic triptych, each panel 18 x 24", group ca. 2x5'
Dream-inspired landscape with herons and wild horses in a vaguely Japanese style...
TONY DIGS THE RED EARTH: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/2/23; painting in the Box of Dreams
It's Thanksgiving but my brother won't come in; he's digging up red earth. In our family he always digs up...
THE TUBA MAN: by Wayan; 1982/7/8, a career-advice dream; watercolor sketch.
Tuba Man plays from the top of a tower, even when Loveless Man opens fire; for music is life to him...
THE 1200-STEP PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1987/12/17, an illustrated dreamtale.
I'm climbing a tower, as my dad, Apollo, drunk, throws bottles at me from the top, breaking bones...
CAUTION: DENIAL ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
TWO-FACED LAPIS AND THE MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1992/7/6, a distractable dream
I'm shown a mysterious two-faced carving;
I shush loud people disturbing my therapy;
I'm told of a documentary on the archetypal mother...
TWO GORILLAS IN THE FIELD: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/12/5; painting in the Box of Dreams
I see two gorillas in the field. One waves at me and approaches. I feel excited but a little scared...
RED-TAILED UNICORN: by Wayan; Sept. 1971?, a childhood icon in acrylic.
One of my first tries with paint--part Tibetan, part medieval, part hippie, part Navaho...
UNICORN ROUND: by Wayan; 2000/9/18, nondream; acrylic on a vinyl record.
Yellow fireflies circling round the horn of a reclining red unicorn, in the evening...
UTOPIA: by Wayan; 37 p, 3.9 MB, 2007/5/9, a painted essay on... wishes?
An improvised painting-series exploring my obsession for Utopia--and your deafening silence...
CAUTION: IDEAS, FURRY NUDITY, THAT GOSH-DARN MODERN ABSTRACT ART
THE VEGETABLES OF SHADOW: by Wayan; 1999/10/4. Nondream surrealist art technique.
Make silhouettes of your beloved vegetables; then listen to the spaces between...
CAUTION: LEWD SQUASH
THE VERDURE IS ACCOMPLISHED: by Jenny Badger Sultan; dreamed 1996/4/21 and 5/11
A dream voice announced "The verdure is accomplished." Green is a healing color for me...
In the next dream we sat round a green pool, talking of healing. But the snails troubled me...
VERITY'S WINGS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/8/21; painting in the Box of Dreams
My friend Verity's given a beautiful set of wings. I'm envious until I consider what angel wings imply...
VIEWFINDER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/5/31, a dream-ritual declined
A friend explained she planned to be a human viewfinder, bendng into
an arch for a male spirit to dive through. I didn't want to risk it...
WARM MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2001/3/24, 3/29, 3/30 & 4/1; dreams
I dream my mother takes over caring for my sick daughter; I feel pushed aside.
When I wake, I try to paint a more positive image of mothering.
For a week, dream after dream has opportunities for patience and letting go of jealousy...
WATERFALL: by Wayan; 1986, ink blown up via Xerox, with acrylic wash; nondream.
A stylized waterfall--a distillation of all those childhood summers camping in Yosemite...
WEAVING MATS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/15; a predictive dream from the Box of Dreams
In a camp, women wove mats. I was tempted to try. But it was
months before I learned what they'd really been weaving..
WHALE SPEAKS: by Brenda Ferrimani; dreamed 2014? An epic dream painting.
I dreamed I was a whale swimming against a Christian ebb tide,
trying to lead humans to a cleaner spiritual current...
CAUTION: HARD ON AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?: by Carla Young, 2010/3/16; painting of a political dream pun
My friend's ignorant of our local Congressional race. I loathe Pombo
and like his rival McNerney, but can't pronounce his name right...
WHEN BLOOD FLOWS, THE DANGER IS PAST
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/3/23 & 2000/4/19, twin dreams of carved women
A woman is knifed by the sea. I cradle her, but she's probably dying...
For my intitiation-ordeal, I have to cut designs in my own back! I can't reach, so...
WHITE-HAIRED WOMEN: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2002/5/4, a dream painting
I'm in a ring of seven white-haired women, our arms all interlocking.
When I woke I had fun working out the pattern of those interlinked arms...
THE WHITE SNAKE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1998/4/1, a dream painting
DAY: we're preparing for a trip to Malta to see ancient sites.
DREAM: Hiking, I discover a gigantic white snake. It feels like a good omen...
A WIFE OR A GHOST: by Justin Masi; 2014? a surreal dream-painting-prose-poem on grief
My sister's fiancé Billy died a year ago. I didn't realize how deep the grief ran till I dreamed...
THE WHITE WAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1988/8/3, a comic nightmare
I'm holding a pornographic novel, trying to keep it dry, as huge waves
flood the room. The book and I are both going to get drenched...
WHO KNOWS WHO'S YOUR MATE? mid-1980s, ink, Xerox, acrylic; a nondream picture-poem
Share? And who? And WHAT? Who knows who's your mate... and who's NOT?
WHO, ME?: by Wayan; 2002. Acrylic of dream figure.
Some shy folks don't even know they're dragons....
WILL I BE BITTEN?: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/3/15; a predictive dream from the Box of Dreams
A friend who's fought lymphoma invites me to sleep in a cave, but I fear a rattlesnake will bite me...
WINDFALLS IN EDEN: by Wayan, 2000/3/30, a religio-politic dream.
I'm a part-owner of Eden, harvesting windfalls.
But a renter says his Landlord promised him all the apples...
WINTER DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; winter 2004/2005, a painted series of color-dreams.
After teaching a class on color, I had a series of vivid dreams
about color, and tried fusing them into one painting...
WINTER SNAIL: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 1994/1/22, twin dreams of renewal fuse in a painting
At the beach, a barrel of huge snails somehow heal my legs.
In the next dream, back on the beach, I give birth to our son...
A WORK OF ART: by Carla Young, early 1970s; dream painting and story
I'm to be beheaded. Guards chant "It's important to enjoy what you're doing."
I know my spilled blood will create a work of art...


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