While I Sleep, My Mind Has Been Silently Toying With Surrealism ..
And maybe I have the wrong definition of what this type of art really involves, but I think that's the category of my latest endeavor. (If you think that the following piece would be better suited for another category, please let me know in the comments). For the last few weeks I have had some weird dreams. I'll wake up close to 2 or 3 am, frustrated with the puzzles my mind is attempting to solve. I have been dreaming of moving pieces, and solving unsolvable moving puzzles.
As I Begin Flirting With This New Idea ..
And new art style (well new to me at least), I will have learned that it was much harder than I imagined it would have been; me trying to express the vision I had in my mind. I will have also ended up with an interesting and new creation that I would eventually call 'Walk Me Home'. My hope is that you enjoy it and the story I chose to tell, in order to help you understand my thought process. The piece may not appeal to everyone, but all I ask is that you give it a chance.
This All Stems From An Annoying Series Of Dreams ..
My latest set of dreams involved houses.. I was telling my wife the other day that I was having this reoccurring dream of trying to move tightly stacked windows of a home around. I kept awaking to the frustration of not being able to figure out where they should go. Every time I would wake up, I tried to think about something completely different, so as to not have the same dream. My efforts did not work, and it was like I was supposed to be having this dream. Night after night I would have this stupid, annoying dream.
The reasons why elude me .. Last week I had had enough of this garbage and decided to create something close to what I was dreaming. I sketched something out on a piece of scrap paper and then put my creative mind to work on it. Funny thing is that 
I eventually found a photo I took this summer, of an old mansion. I manipulated it and suddenly my mind was flooded with other details of the dream.. An old man with a cane, a dog, and his lady lover perhaps.
What I Remember of the Dream ..
I remember in the dream, that the man had approached me several times asking about the windows I was touching and moving around. He was sort of irritating while pestering me about why I was doing this. He seemed quite interested in the house. I had gotten the impression that he did not know where he belonged. He seemed lost but knew who I was. I didn't know him in my dreams, but recently came up with a theory about his identity.
Do I know this man?.. My wife and I built a home many years ago, and one of the builders now lives in our neighborhood. He would always be the one I would go to during the home building process, with concerns and issues we needed resolved to our liking and satisfaction. Today he is not the same man he used to be. He is now stricken with dementia and can be found wandering the neighborhood by himself or with his wife or nurse guiding him. He often yells out a boisterous "HELLO NEIGHBOR" coupled with a bit of small talk. I sometimes gather that he no longer remembers who I am. It's very sad that this is the way of life for so many battling dementia or other such mental illnesses.
The man and his wife also had two small dogs. On several occasions, I would find the dogs wandering the neighborhood, and would have to return them to their home. I think that he would let them out and forget he did so. The dogs have since been relocated to another family members home, where they can be cared for without the risk of being accidentally neglected.
I noticed an ambulance by their home last week.. And then my wife read on a social media site, that he was in the hospital and now admitted to rehab again. Him, his wife, his dogs, and how his disease is wrecking havoc on their lives, must have been weighing on my mind and spawning strange dreams. At least this is my weird interoperation of why I was having these dreams.
Who knows.. It could be as simple as that! or maybe the meaning behind our dreams are way more complex.
The Art ..
We're all here for the strange art, right? So now I'll get to it. I tried to incorporate all of the important "Dream" details into this piece. I kept it visually simple and yet emotionally complex (obviously in my opinion). Let's be honest.. the piece means the more to me, then most of the people who will see it. I had a decent idea of how I wanted to express what I was seeing in my dreams, and feel confident that I did just that. It's quite different than that original sketch above, that's for sure. The more interesting part I think will be how each of you (the viewers) will interpret the piece.
'Walk Me Home' ~ by BDMiller
I shrunk the art to 1.66MB from an original 19MB
Given enough time with the piece, I think you will develop your own story. My mind is open to additional interpretations, and if you enjoy this type of art, I am sure you will have one.
This brings up an interesting discussion..
Do I ruin the art piece by providing my insight on why I created it, what inspired it, and my personal emotions behind it? Just curious about this thought. I know that some artists would rather NOT give any of this information away. Am I taking some of the fun out of the viewing process and quite possibly removing some of the questions one may develop during the process of study or dissection?
Maybe
I have also been playing around with this "man and his cane" (actually a shadow of me while holding a shovel on a brightly lit day). I have inserted him into some other strange manipulated photos which I plan to share at a later date. I was also thinking about placing a few copies of 'Walk Me Home' as an NFT on NFTShowroom. I haven't decided yet what to do. Maybe it's not quite ready or good enough yet.
That's My Story ..
I went from trying to decipher my dream to creating a surreal art piece.. And don't ask me to explain it any further. More dreaming is needed first. lol. All I know is that I had a bunch of annoying dreams, a rough sketch, several photos that I edited and combined together, along with a few borrowed items from a free photo sharing site [Pixabay ~ Lady with dog and red balloon], and somehow tied them all together into a creation of sorts. I tried to incorporate the basics of my dream; A man walking along a path with a cane in hand, a red balloon signifying lost love, a dog, a lady lover, and of course ...
A house with lots of windows. Because that's where it all started.
“I've always seen hidden meanings in everything. Whenever I used to do those puzzles in children's magazines, the ones where you're supposed to find all the hidden pictures, I'd never find the right ones. I'd say I found the griffin, and the Wesselman steam engine, and the missing little finger of the mummy of Tut, and everyone would give me a strange look and say, All you're looking for is a yellow duck...[instead] work up to the voices of places you can only imagine. Ask where to find the griffin, and the Wesselman steam engine, and the little finger of Tut. I know they're out there, and usually in the strangest of places. And if you find the yellow duck, let me know. That's the one I always miss.”
― Brian Andreas, Still Mostly True
Thank you for swinging by my blog and checking out the post. Have a great day!
All words, pictures and art pieces are the sole property of B D Miller Gallery, unless otherwise noted and credited, and are not to be reproduced or copied without the prior written consent of B D Miller Gallery.
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