INTRODUCTION

Phyllis Davidson is a painter whose work looks half collage (iconic figures juxtaposed on a black ground) and half Old Master (Caravaggio and Mannerist painting to be exact). She's a sleepwalker, tending to act out her dreams. It shows.

I was unable to find a color version of her painting "Sins of the Faithful", mentioned below; sorry.

While working on "Sins of the Faithful" (1978), which includes my copy of his self-portrait (Boy with Fruit, 1590), I dreamt of meeting Caravaggio in a huge cavernous theatre--a very dark, intensely cold place. He led me to a series of stages on which were his paintings. Somehow they were three-dimensional: we were able to enter and walk around the figures viewing them from all angles. The effect of that forced dramatic chiaroscuro that makes his paintings very dark and the highlights correspondingly brilliant was heightened by the surrounding darkness and was the most striking feature of the dream. He was congenial and humorous and kept up a steady stream of conversation about his work.

At first, upon awakening, I was annoyed that I hadn't asked questions of a personal nature. But that's the great pity when dreams are concerned--all that can be revealed to you is what you already know or can imagine. So, the colorful details of the great artist's life remain unknown to me, but that, after all, is of little significance: he left a legacy of highly personal and dramatic art to enlighten, instruct, and astound us.

SOURCE: Dreamworks: an Interdisciplinary Quarterly (v.4, no.1, 1984, p.3-6)

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