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The Mystery of Art
The Mystery of Art 1997 by Joseph Melançon
I saw a handsome young man in his early thirties standing motionless about 30 feet away. He was nattily attired in a tan sport jacket, dark brown trousers and impeccably shined brown lace up shoes. He was studying rock formations of a canyon wall. The marble or granite rock was unusually smooth and folded like a curtain. He knew that I was observing him. He was intently studying the valuable elements hidden within the smooth rock. He took mental notes and muttered a response of approval. A brief glance from him signaled me to follow him. We reached our destination... the center of an immense space that I had never seen before. A picturesque, grassy, green valley surrounded by steep canyon walls sprawled before us. In the center was a quiet pond with taller grasses and giant trees on the far side of it. A third person whom I knew joined us.
Almost immediately the three of us started rising from the earth and floated several feet off the ground. It was exhilarating and almost expected. We started moving at various rates of speed still only a few feet off the grassy surface. We seemed to be sitting on the very air around us with the tops of tall grasses brushing by our feet as we moved through the landscape, up and down, following the contour of the land. We soared from great heights to only inches at times from the surface traveling slowly at times only to accelerate to breath taking speeds. I became conscious of being very near the surface of the pond, nearly touching the water when, all of a sudden I shot straight up a tall tree and the cliff wall. I was sensing all that passed before me with an extreme, indescribably, delicious feeling. We left the valley and soared across farmland and pastures that looked very familiar on to the region near Burnside, on the river road, that I remember as a boy in Louisiana. The grass and trees were even greener and more lush than before. The air temperature was perfect. Traveling at a high rate of speed, we approached a large, white, two story farm house. Suddenly I rocketed straight up the exterior wall and reaching the eve I rolled left and rocketed straight back to earth just as the alarm clock jolted me awake......!!
I connected this dream directly to the feelings I experienced last evening while hand coloring my new series of etchings. That’s right... Etchings. Elizabeth Yarosz, in the last Southwest Watercolor Society workshop, inspired me to learn etching and dry point printmaking. So I’m currently taking a course at Collin County Community College with a group of printmaking enthusiasts. My search and excitement was fully expressed in the dream: with me being all three persons. The dream confirmed to me the feelings of release and boundless, soaring possibilities of painting multiple images without the pain of parting with the original. Is art great?....or what.
Several years ago, after taking a very interesting dream analysis course, I set out to record my dreams for a period of time as an experiment. I ended up doing it for over a year: filling notebooks and recording tapes. By waking after each dream sequence I could record the dreams several times a night in a notebook. It was simply amazing how simple this became (with no noticeable loss of sleep) and how clear and informative the dreams became. It certainly was a productive and entertaining manner in which to tap into my subconscious... the storehouse of all the ignored intuitions, unfinished thoughts, ideas, unresolved feelings, of the previous day or the current condition of my life. I still pay attention to my dreams: I never know what might be revealed to me or what metaphoric images will be employed by my subconscious mind.
I saw a handsome young man in his early thirties standing motionless about 30 feet away. He was nattily attired in a tan sport jacket, dark brown trousers and impeccably shined brown lace up shoes. He was studying rock formations of a canyon wall. The marble or granite rock was unusually smooth and folded like a curtain. He knew that I was observing him. He was intently studying the valuable elements hidden within the smooth rock. He took mental notes and muttered a response of approval. A brief glance from him signaled me to follow him. We reached our destination... the center of an immense space that I had never seen before. A picturesque, grassy, green valley surrounded by steep canyon walls sprawled before us. In the center was a quiet pond with taller grasses and giant trees on the far side of it. A third person whom I knew joined us.
Almost immediately the three of us started rising from the earth and floated several feet off the ground. It was exhilarating and almost expected. We started moving at various rates of speed still only a few feet off the grassy surface. We seemed to be sitting on the very air around us with the tops of tall grasses brushing by our feet as we moved through the landscape, up and down, following the contour of the land. We soared from great heights to only inches at times from the surface traveling slowly at times only to accelerate to breath taking speeds. I became conscious of being very near the surface of the pond, nearly touching the water when, all of a sudden I shot straight up a tall tree and the cliff wall. I was sensing all that passed before me with an extreme, indescribably, delicious feeling. We left the valley and soared across farmland and pastures that looked very familiar on to the region near Burnside, on the river road, that I remember as a boy in Louisiana. The grass and trees were even greener and more lush than before. The air temperature was perfect. Traveling at a high rate of speed, we approached a large, white, two story farm house. Suddenly I rocketed straight up the exterior wall and reaching the eve I rolled left and rocketed straight back to earth just as the alarm clock jolted me awake......!!
I connected this dream directly to the feelings I experienced last evening while hand coloring my new series of etchings. That’s right... Etchings. Elizabeth Yarosz, in the last Southwest Watercolor Society workshop, inspired me to learn etching and dry point printmaking. So I’m currently taking a course at Collin County Community College with a group of printmaking enthusiasts. My search and excitement was fully expressed in the dream: with me being all three persons. The dream confirmed to me the feelings of release and boundless, soaring possibilities of painting multiple images without the pain of parting with the original. Is art great?....or what.
Several years ago, after taking a very interesting dream analysis course, I set out to record my dreams for a period of time as an experiment. I ended up doing it for over a year: filling notebooks and recording tapes. By waking after each dream sequence I could record the dreams several times a night in a notebook. It was simply amazing how simple this became (with no noticeable loss of sleep) and how clear and informative the dreams became. It certainly was a productive and entertaining manner in which to tap into my subconscious... the storehouse of all the ignored intuitions, unfinished thoughts, ideas, unresolved feelings, of the previous day or the current condition of my life. I still pay attention to my dreams: I never know what might be revealed to me or what metaphoric images will be employed by my subconscious mind.
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The Mystery of Art.cwk, 35 KB
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Comments and critiques on this Story.
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Permalink Reply by TWalsh on -
This was a really fun ride! My favorite line: "The dream confirmed to me the feelings of release and boundless, soaring possibilities of painting multiple images without the pain of parting with the original."
From where does creativity come?
It was fun to get lost in this story, Joseph. I can't wait for you to take us on another trip!
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Melancon on -
It sounds like there is much more you can say about flying. Thanks for your comment.
J
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