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Jessica Libor

~ Studio Journal

Jessica Libor

Tag Archives: dreams

Painting your Dreams

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by Jessica Libor in art, Uncategorized

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arch street press, artist, artistic practices, creating art, creativity, drawing, dream meanings, dreams, emerging artist, excess of being, inspiration, lera auerbach, painting, painting your dreams, social entrepreneurship, social innovation, subconcious mind

I woke up for a moment, then immediately went back to sleep because I had to see what happened in my dream.

I was in an elevator riding downward, having just realized that I had left my suitcase back up at one of the floors above. I had to reach it before the time portal closed. I pushed the buttons to bring me back up, and reached the floor where I had left my suitcase. It was there, but a different color. I grabbed it anyway and stepped back into the elevator, which was now full of people. I tried to look inconspicuous. The men had pinstripe suits on, and the women had 1940’s style hats in all different colors. As I reached the ground level, I stepped outside onto the street and walked into another time, this present time.

Around my neck was a camera that I had used to take pictures while I was back in time. I walked into a camera shop to get the shots developed, and somehow recognized that the elderly man behind the desk knew my secret. I asked him earnestly, “Is it possible, to go back and forth? Do I have to choose one or the other? Can I have a life back there, and in this present time?”

He wouldn’t answer me, but silently took my film.

I woke up. There was more to the dream, but that was what I could remember of it.

What did it mean? Does this dream have any insight into my life? Perhaps. Maybe it’s a reflection of my appreciation of other time periods, and an expression that I want to bring the charm of the past into the present. Does it have unexpected, unusual imagery present that I normally would not have imagined? Absolutely. Imagine an elevator full of women all with brightly colored hats. Imagine suitcases that changed color. The artistic possibilities are rich, all mined from your subconscious mind creating images that you would never have thought of before.

I have several paintings that have stemmed from dreams, and they always come out a little more interesting and unfathomable than works dreamt up by my daytime brain.  Artist throughout the ages have also taken inspiration from their dreams.  Take the ones below:

Henri_Rousseau_-_A_Carnival_Evening

A Carnival Evening, by Henri Rousseau

MaxErnst

Max Ernst

Max-Ernst-Everyone-Here-Speaks-Latin

Everyone Here Speaks Latin, by Max Ernst

the-furniture-of-timebyYvesTanguy

The Furniture of Time, by Yves Tanguy

Woman-with-an-Umbrella-in-an-Exotic-Forest-rousseau

Woman With an Umbrella in an Exotic Forest, by Henri Rousseau

Attainment (smaller), oil, gold and silver leaf on panel, 48"x72"

Attainment, by Jessica Libor

 

What practices that have helped me harness the imagery in my dreams into an artistic practice are:

  1. Keeping a dream journal– using writing or sketching, capture the images in your dream as soon as you wake up.
  2. Before you go to bed, only allow yourself to think positively, and go to sleep with the expectancy that your mind will show you something wonderful.
  3. Go through your dream sketchbook periodically and work out more fully the sketches that look interesting to you. Give them color and life, and see which ones might make fully-fledged artworks.

I hope this inspires you to pay more attention to your own dream imagery and helps you add another dimension to your art practice. I would encourage you to even pay attention to the negative, scary or unsettling aspects of your dreams, as they are usually your mind attempting to work out conflicts in your life, and can help to resolve decisions and choices. Often we avoid our problems or get very pragmatic while looking at them in our waking hours—but our intuition really comes out in our dreams and shows us how we really feel, whether we like it or not. I’ve heard that they are the minds way of trying on different choices and scenarios in life as a rehearsal—to show what it would be like, or show us the way. As Lera Auerbach muses wisely in her book, Excess of Being: “A coward is a servant of his fears. A hero enslaves his fears.” May you face your fears and hopes fearlessly in your dreams, and harness them to create more powerful art.

Lead with Love

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by Jessica Libor in art, beauty, Inspiration, Journeys, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

arch street press, art, artist, creative, dreams, inspiration, leader, leaders, leadership, social entrepreneurship, socialinnovation, vision

screen-shot-2016-12-03-at-11-45-13-pm

Spring, by Millet, 1873

Recently I have been thinking a lot about leadership.  In my lifetime I have worked under people, managed people, been a pupil in a classroom setting, been the teacher in the classroom setting, and many variations within.  In all of these settings dynamics of energy are present that make you excited to be there, or dread being there.  As I thought more about it, I realized that this good or bad energy was created not by the ease or difficulty of the workload or the physical environment, but by the quality of the leaders.  What strikes me is that with good leadership, you don’t even notice you are being led–because you are so excited to be on this person’s team, and their good energy is contagious.  So what are some of the traits of someone who leads people with excitement, creates loyalty, and brings out the best in people?

  1.  They are passionate about what they do.  This is a basic first step.  If someone is passionate about what they do, it raises the excitement level of everyone around them.  People are pulled upwards and inspired by the person’s passion–or love–for an idea or project. Even if there’s no technical position of leadership, these kinds of people will be natural leaders because people will gravitate towards their passion.  Everyone wants to feel alive, and if someone it totally awake and alive in what they do, they’ll create a trail of people excited by their energy and wanting it, too.
  2. They are trustworthy.  When they say they will do something, they follow through, no excuses.  This creates a trust, a feeling of stability, and avoids resentment for people who depend on your leadership.
  3. They treat people with respect.  From the youngest student, to the janitor, to the president of a company, the best leaders treat everyone with the same level of respect.  This creates the feeling like you are SEEN when they are in their presence, and this powerful experience of being seen and respected can by the biggest catalyst of growth for people who may have never had it to that level before.
  4. They take responsibility.  They shoulder what is theirs to carry, and hold others accountable in a kind way for carrying their own responsibilities.
  5. They are open to feedback.  You feel like you could go to them with concerns, questions and ideas and they would be receptive, not shut you down.
  6. They retain their humility.  They understand that they are human like everyone else, and the world does not revolve around them simply because they are in a position of influence.  They retain their empathy for people and create an environment of caring.

So how do you measure up?  How do I?  Like most imperfect people, I can think of times where I’m proud of how I led, and other times that  I wish I could relive in order to fix.  Writing this list makes me want to be more conscientious of my actions…but not so conscientious that it paralyzes.  I still believe that THE most important quality of leadership is the passion.  As long as you have that, everything else is the icing on the cake.

As is quoted in Robert Rimm and Clive Gillison’s  book Better to Speak of It, “What we’re really all involved with doing is trying to wrestle dreams into reality.”

A beautiful description of an ideal leader, exciting the people around him with his own vision until it becomes their own.

 

 

 

 

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