Nigel Fox Artworks

I was talking with a family member this morning about dreams and the thought came to me about surrealism. Surrealism was a movement in art where the artists placed contrasting subjects into a realistic setting. An example of this is Salvadore Dali’s famous work “The Persistence of Memory”, also known by many as “melting clocks” (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg). Surrealist painters often used inspiration from the subconscious, mainly dreams.

Anyways, I was surprised to find out that another family member had a dream with strikingly similar details later on in the week–before she even knew about the former’s dream. I had a similar dream where a friend had the exact same dream from a different point of view. I dreamed that I was trying to get my friend to press the escape key on a computer, but he couldn’t find it; my friend dreamed that he was in front of a computer and I was excitedly telling him to do something, but it was over his head. Neither of us collaborated on this dream; we were in separate cities, three hours apart; and we both had the dream over the same period of a week.

This anecdotal observation confirms my belief that there is much more to dreams than simply the subconscious blowing off steam and that there is perhaps something more tangible at play; at least something observable at some level.

So, back to the surrealists. I was down in Vancouver this summer on a business trip and I had the opportunity to take in a show at the Vancouver Art Gallery and I was sort of surprised to see a collection of west coast native art in the exhibit. Upon reading the subtitles to the pieces, I learned that the west coast art was taken from the collections of the surrealist artists. My native art teacher, master carver, Dempsey Bob said that many of the famous euro-american artists took their ideas from west coast art. Seeing this exhibit was evidence of this to me; though I get the feeling that the most wise first nations elders and people already know this.

Anyways, if I can make a conclusion, it would be that what is called art is much more than a pretty picture and that there is actually something more important at work, perhaps something that is as deep as the foundations of creation, or deeper. And that it is not even about the creation, but rather a reflection of who we are.

That’s my deep thought for the day. If you have the time, send me an email at nigel@nigelfoxartworks.com, I’d like to hear similar stories or even if you had a significant dream or experience or anything that you want to comment about.