Have any of you had night dreams of being a sculptor?

[Berinje']

When I went from being a fine art painter to being a sculptor, I started having dozens of night dreams where someone I'm meeting in the dream asks me what I do for a living. I always answer back that I'm a sculptor and the person is always very impressed and interested. I especially had a lot of these dreams in the first couple of years that I started sculpting. I never used to have people ask me what I did for a living in my dreams when I was a painter--not even once. I took these dreams to mean that I was on the right track in changing my focus and medium to sculpting. And I actually do find that in daily life people are much more interested to hear about what I do as a sculptor than they ever were when I was a painter.

So I'm just curious if any of you have had similar dreams. I also dream I'm sculpting or ideas for sculptures sometimes show up in my dreams. How about you?

[anatomist1]

I started sculpting the day after such a dream. I dreamed I was showing this woman from my anatomy class a bunch of wooden sculptures I made, many of which were of bony subject matter. I woke up, sawed a chunk from a piece of wood I had lying around, and started carving a humerus out it with my lame little box of hand tools. I used my anatomy book and a ruler. I carved a fairly accurate bone over the course of the weekend and gave it to the woman that week after class. By the end of the semester I had made several more sculptures, and by the end of the summer I had given up the idea of becoming a physical therapist for sculpting. That was about 8 years ago. I have no idea where the bone is now or the woman. I can't even remember her name.

[Berinje']

Very interesting, Anatomist1, very interesting indeed. Dreams can be such a creative and inspirational force. And in your case that dream totally changed the direction of your life/career. I think that was some powerful guidance.

I enjoyed looking at your website. Very imaginative sculpture!

[mickey57]

..."Crazy Horse,You in there?**BOOM** :D
.............Mickey

[jim]

I did have a dream i was hunting deer with a bow> i shot this deer and it had 1 huge antler with a river rock in the middle of it almost as if the antler grew around the rock.. im not a hunter but i do use river rock in some of my metal work...the dream did give me an idea..

jim

[Landseer]

Sort of, I had a dream where I was in a room with 2 windows and they were open, and the air was streaming in, but the air was visible as a shape coming through the square openings. I thouhgt maybe a model of this might be fun sometime.

[Merlion]

Landseer, I think you had mentioned this dream before with more visual details, and we suggested you should make use of the chance to make a fascinating imaginative sculpture or painting out of it. Well, it is still not too late to do it now.

I'll promote this as a motto. Follow your dream, follow your passion, follow your curiosity.

[Hallac]

Definitely drempt of sculpting many times. And after waking refreshed, I'll head to the shop and gladly create until dark. Unlike dreaming of working at my main job/business, I'll wake up tired as if I'd worked a full day already, and soo dreading going to work - AGAIN! It's high school all over again!

[iron ant]

I have had dreams/nightmares of former art dealers I knowI have dreamed of one about 10 times in 15 years,some kind of crazy,some really good and positive.I look at it as I had such a high level of respect,intense presure to create,and more presure to selll and impress.I left that world behind, with that reresentation,but The dreames are reminders..IA

[AKRyeGuy]

I had a dream I was re-visiting one of the places that I had worked. It was this security door, burglar bar, wrought iron railing and awning manufacturing place that also repaired window screens which occasionally made canvas boat covers. I helped install doors mostly.

When I worked there before the place was really dark and dusty, with all kinds of old parts for older houses. It reminded me of something a pack rat would have created, a sort of midden of metal and junk that couldn't be thrown away, ever.

In my dream though the modest son of the owner had sort of taken it over in his production of abstract art installations. These were festooned all over the place in the same tradition, only they were beautiful conglomerations of exotic, carved wood and metal fasteners. This previously underestimated kid was now the owner of his dad's shop, and he had truly done something miraculous in bringing important, astounding art to an industrial-character type city that previously had little use for it.

Halfway through the visit I was waking up, and realising that my dream was the designer of the artwork, not the kid's. It was a wonderful feeling that made me feel rejuvenated. It was like having my faith, my purpose, or solidity of identity restored. Now if I could just remember some of those designs!!!

[Berinje']

Very interesting dreams! I think the artist is especially sensitive to other dimensions, or levels of consciousness that are filled with images, music, ideas. And our role as the artist is to bring new concepts, and as sculptors, to bring original art forms from that other world into our physical reality. To make our dream images real and share them with humanity. And I think we all do that whether we know it or not. Well, that's what I think anyway :o

[MountainSong]

I’ve dreamed a number of my pieces, just finished one today, a painting that was a dream. A little happy whimsical piece – like whistling to one’s self. I don’t think I could have thought of it while awake actually.

[Berinje']

That's wonderful, MountainSong :) It sounds really special. If you get a chance could you post a picture of it?

Some of the pieces I had an idea for from a dream seem the most special to me. And then there are the ones I've forgotten and didn't write them down fast enough. I keep hoping I'll redream them, but alas, they've probably been given to someone else in a dream by now :confused:

[GlennT]

I have had vivid visual dreams all the time since I was a kid. Some are re-occurring themes and locations, but most are new. About 3 to 5 per night. Some have involved art, including amazing murals, sculpture, and architecture. On a few occaisions I woke up and sketched these, and in two instances made models.

One was for a 9-11 memorial, which I ended up entering when they had the design competetion a year later. A soccer opponent told me she dreamt that I had designed a memorial for the WTC, but at that time I had no particular aspiration. Then on January 1, 2002 came the dream. It was a powerful and compelling image, which caused me to wake up and sketch it, and then do a scale model.

The design competition attracted thousands of entries, and a full site plan and several architectural features were required. I did all of that but in the end they seemed to prefer the minimalist approach, the type that (perhaps intellectually) says a lot by saying nothing, leaving the viewer to fill in the very large blanks.

I have some interesting experiences to relate to the right people regarding the language of dreams, but I don't want to use this forum to do so. I think there are many different types and purposes of dreams, and books that try a one-size-fits-all interpretation of symbolism approach are off the mark.

Glenn