(See all my written dreams here)
In 1995 I was 16 and I had an idea: Whenever I woke up and remembered what I dreamed that night, I would write it down immediately (if you don’t do it immediately it disappears from memory pretty quickly).
I can’t remember what sparked the idea (something, I think, on MySpace) to make paintings of my dreams. This idea was totally feasible since I had already written down probably more than a hundred of them. I love this idea because I have always been fascinated by dreams – this other world we live in where our brain makes up these bizarre stories. It’s like your brain is constantly creating new stuff and this was a way to catch these dreams. I also wanted to get practice with oil painting since it is admittedly one of my weakest points in art media. This is why I chose to make them small (these are each 8×10″ oils) Enjoy!
3-29-95 Last night I had two dreams. In the first one I was with a group of people, I don’t know who. We were in the mountains and we were water skiing- up a stream with no boat. Then somehow I was in an indoor pool – with the skis I think. I was looking down at people swimming and I saw Courtney, she glanced up at me but continued chasing Scott Kitchen. I was sad because she only glanced at me. Then I was off the skis and under water – it wasn’t hard holding my breath. That’s all I can remember, then I was just sleeping until the second dream. I’m not sure if this is how it starts, but I was in the yard-a yard-not ours-and I saw some trash blowing around. It looked like dad’s mail. Then I asked Ricky Chase who was standing there, why had he read my letter? He said “Because I wanted to know the inside word”, he said sadly. Then he started walking up the street in front of our house. I then went inside to find the letter. In my room was an open box. Inside it was a couple of books, some pictures and the letter. I glanced at the letter but took out a phone that was in the box [some how I was suddenly in mom & dad’s room] The phone had two sets of buttons, only one had numbers on it. It had and on & off button and a hang up button. I thought “I’ll call Courtney on this phone”. All the sudden it was like I had just waken up- I was back in my room and I was about to take the letter out of the box. I couldn’t seem to completely wake up. I kept shaking my head. Then I really did wake up. I was still anxious to-to…what? What was I just thinking about? Courtney! Courtney! Oh, the letter. I looked down to my desk and saw the Lamborghini I drew last night-no box-no letter! There was one more thing-somewhere in that dream, I was on our basket ball court with Courtney and for some reason she was crying so I hugged her. It was so real.
End
3-30-95 I had two dreams again last night. All I can remember about the first one was that Adrienne wanted to play football. Me, Wes, Aric and Adrienne were up at the high school practice field with others who were going to play football. Adrienne was arguing with Aric about a college football player. Adrienne knew more than I did! Well, that’s all in the first one. In the second one, I don’t know how we got there but me, Wes, Aric and I think Adrienne were on a trail at night. The trail cliffed off at the sides. I can’t remember anything beyond the side of the trail – bushes? Just darkness. Then at the end of the trail there was the Pentagon? The four of us did something there I can’t remember. The sun was out but it was still dark. Suddenly it was like a flare reached out from the sun to where we were and everything was on fire. We started hauling butt down the other way on the trail. The fire seemed to chase us. Aric and Wes got ahead of me because I was looking back at-I was sure now, this girl wasn’t Adrienne she had blond hair? – the girl. She was crying because she couldn’t keep up with us. I slowed down and crouched and said “Piggy Back”. She jumped on my back and I ran to where Aric and Wes were. I remember as we ran I said “When God comes, He is going to destroy the world in fire!” We all started praying out loud. Then we went underground, safe from the fire. I can’t remember how, it was an elevator I think. We were inside a Public place and we ran to a room. Mom was in the room sitting on a bed. “Are you back from sewing pennies at the Pentagon?” she asked. And that’s all I remember.
End
4-3-95 I don’t think I can remember everything about my dreams last night or all of them. All I can remember about the first one is that I was on the west side of a white trailer house out in the country. The field it was in had tall weed/grass like the stuff out in the alley. It was a cloudy day and I was looking west at a swing set. I can’t remember much about the second either. I was at the City Market parking lot. Aric walked away from me and put his Bible in the trash can and then he got into a little car -a red 4 cylinder – in the back seat. I went to the trash can and took out his Bible and went to the car and laid it on the front seat in front of him, his mom was in the driver’s seat. That’s all.
The End
4-7-95 Last night I dreamt I was in Aric’s truck with him and Jason Moyer. “Jaime is a good dog. Do you know who Jaime is Josh?” asked Aric. “Yeah, Lil’ Woof!” I said. “Yeah,” Aric said. Then I looked at my old watch that is about to break and I said “This watch ain’t no stooge” Aric and Jason agreed with me. And that’s all.
The End
4-8-95 My first dream last night, I was here in Craig. I think Craig had some bigger buildings. It seems like I was over at that parking garage behind Ben’s mom’s hair cutting place (in that area) There was an old motel there. It was like each room was a separate little building. This motel really seemed real. I remember talking to mom there. I was thinking about that motel. A business man came from out of town and painted it blue. everyone was happy because he was going to fix up the place but as soon as he painted he left. Then another guy came and painted it white and had it running for a while. But now, as I stood there, the place was run down. Windows were broken. The paint was chipping. There was trash and junk and weeds all around. Then I looked up into the sky [it was twilight, it was almost night] I saw what looked like a giant sign/billboard flying in an arc from west to east. It had an advertisement on it. It was very normal to me. ….. Then I remember being in a motel room [different than the one I just explained] There was a dime sized hole in the floor. Wes was looking in it and laughing. I looked in to see the room below us’ TV Then I looked back and saw a couple of people. Me and Wes thought it was cool because we could see them but they couldn’t see us. ….. Then I was at some sort of park. [It seemed a little bit like the city park] and I had my right shoe off. I was looking at the swollen spot on my toe [There is a swollen spot on my big toe in real life right now] I was digging at it and I got something out. ….Then I was riding something – I don’t know what because it was something small and all behind me. The control was like an R.C. control. It had a button for forward and a button for stop/brake. I remember zoomin’ along the street about North Central Craig (about where Paula’s house is) I wasn’t able to stop it real quick. I tried to stop at a stop sign but ended up out in the middle of the street passed it and a car had to stop for me. I started to go up hill to the left [east]. When a truck came out at me. I turned off the road and went down a little dirt hill. …. Somewhere in all the dreams [I’m not sure if they’re all in order] I remember sitting in the back seat of the Ripkoski’s Toyota Camry/Corolla. I remember it was smaller/less knee space in the back seat than our Renault.
The End
4-9-95 I dreamt last night that me, Wes and Aric were drawing on top of the shed with crayons. It was night. The shed was on the post that marks the north border of me & Wes’ area. We didn’t have the back porch. Mom was looking out through the kitchen window. She was yelling because we were late for supper. When we came inside, Aric was gone and we went into the new room. I think mom was asleep. Then fire came out of the first joint in the chimney. Flames caught on our newspaper stack and some other things. I ran as fast as I could into my room and got my squirt bottle. I ran into the kitchen and filled it up then ran back in there and squirted the fire. …… Then I was in the New Room still, but there was no fire or anything. Dad was sitting in Mom’s chair. I was sitting on the south end of the coffee table looking at Dad’s Sunday School book. “Did you read that?” he asked. “No” I said. Then Dad asked “Where are you guys at in your Sunday School books?” I don’t remember what I said. “So tell me about it” he said. Then that’s all I remember. [somewhere in there I remember tearing up my ski pants]
The End
I really like the idea of this series but, as you can tell by the dates, I have really struggled finding the time to do them. I have decided that I’m not enough of an oil enthusiast to put up with the cost and hassles of the materials and cleanup and so I probably won’t keep going with oils. If I continue this series, it will probably be in another medium.
Josh Anderson Art Blog 