Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Remembering fearless dreams





















When I was in my 30s, I had a recurring dream of running at top speed from the top of one building to another in an unknown large city, performing astounding acrobatic feats. Someone was chasing me, but I knew they could never catch me. I was fearless.  What a revelation to see my younger dreamself in these young men flying through the air with such grace and landing on their feet with no loss of momentum.

Many thanks to Doonesbury's Featured Videos for another splendid offering!

That gouache and watercolor painting I did in the late 1980s is "Beloved Person in Bird Costume Crossing the Night River." Here is another one from those years.

Something of that old fearlessness is coming back to me in my 66th year. It comes and goes.

"How long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness?"
(Bob Dylan)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love reading this. Makes me wonder if I ever felt fearless. I'm not remembering a moment like that. My recurring dream was that I could breathe underwater.

Ruth said...

I'm breathless and speechless after watching that freerunning. And then to read that you had a recurring dream like this. Like Robin, I never had a moment like that, though I'd say my life has been a long, slow path toward a more fearless way of living. Maybe we could call it freewalking. :)

Zach said...

hey, i every now and then will have awesome dreams about flying above some unknown city. fearless is a good word to describe the feeling. also, i am totally at peace with myself and the world. just wish i could have this dream more often!

p.s. love the painting. are those intricate borders difficult to paint? :-)

am said...

robin andrea -- For me, the fearless feeling is most pronounced in dreams. The fearless feeling comes when I least expect it. I'd like to hear more about your dreams about breathing underwater. That brings up vivid images for me.

Ruth -- Yes. Freewalking! It's only in my dreams that I have been a freerunner. Thank you for visiting today and bringing the concept of freewalking.

Zach -- Good to hear that you dream of flying and have had that fearless feeling, too. Thank you about the painting. Painting the borders is pure joy for me. For that matter, painting is pure joy for me. Sometimes I stop in the midst of a painting because I don't know what to do next, but there isn't a feeling of difficulty, just a feeling of needing to pause and wait. Some of my paintings were up on my wall, unfinished for as long as a year, while I waited for the insight as to what else the painting needed!

I hope to hear about your creative process on your blog, if you ever feel like writing about it.