Sunday, September 18, 2011

"Mirror, Mirror" is my first painting exploring false doorways. Rather then making deep space that one usually sees in a mirror's reflection, I made the space contained faceless.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Dreaming of Doors





Space is important element in dreams, and for me, as a painter, I’m constantly thinking about space. In my opinion, the place in space that holds the most tension are doorways.  When we cross a doorway’s threshold, infinite possibilities are on the other side. Of course, doors, physically or metaphorically, have been part of human culture for centuries.

The ancient Egyptian temples and tombs from the third dynasty (from 2686 BC) commonly contain false doorways or “Ka Doors.”  Ka refers to an element of the soul. False doorways were thought to be entrance between the living world and the world of the spirits and deities.

"A false door is a place where you have an interaction between the living and the dead. It is really a doorway for the soul to go in and out of the afterworld," says Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo.
"The idea is that you say 'Hi' to the deceased, and the deceased [comes] up and eats and drinks and talks to you, gets your wish, and then goes back down."   Steven Stanek featured this quote in National Geographic News in February 25, 2008.
I recently received a dream about closing doors :
" I fell into a real deep sleep during which I was lucidly closing the doors in my home. I awoke from this dream when my partner got up and closed a couple of doors." 

According to Dream Moods  

To dream that you are entering through a door signifies new opportunities that are presented before you. You are entering into a new stage in your life and moving from one level of consciousness to another. In particular, a door that opens to the outside signifies your need to be more accessible to others, whereas a door that opens into the inside denotes your desire for inner exploration and self-discovery.

To see an opened door in your dream symbolizes your receptiveness and willingness to accept new ideas/concepts. In particular, to see a light behind the door suggests that you are moving toward greater enlightenment/spirituality.

To dream that the door is closed or locked signifies opportunities that are denied and not available to you or that you have missed out on. Something or someone is blocking your progress. It also symbolizes the ending of a phase or project. In particular, if you are outside the locked door, then it suggests that you have anti-social tendencies. If you are inside the locked door, then it represents harsh lessons that need to be learned. 

(http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/d2.htm)

Anyone have any door dreams to share?  Please leave a comment if you do!