“Is this where the magic happens?”

My visitor had arrived. I liked her already.

She walked around the studio smiling, her head scanning the walls slowly. I forget how strong an impression the studio makes on first timers. I think of Ray Bradbury’s book where rooms become real environments; walls materialize into the African savannah with lions resting under a distant acacia tree. The lion’s tale slowly lifts and falls keeping off the flies. Metronomic.

“Beautiful,” she says.

I go on to show her works in progress, explain encaustic and how many paintings are boxed and in the house. Basically, I was playing small and doubting my work; suggesting that what she is seeing is not my best. Please don’t judge me. There is no magic going on here right now. Maybe tomorrow?

She came at a time when I was in the midst of studio U-turns.

I’ve been working on a series called PillowTalk which proposes compositions of the meeting of consciousnesses. Yes I wonder about things like this. It’s the feeling of being not only awake in your dreams but able to direct the action subconsciously. Is it possible to merge those states and to live them in the present? The image above is a detail from the newest piece.

Be careful what you wish for.

A common expression but wait! It’s actually suggesting that you can pull nuggets from your lucid dreams into present time. Night time fishing becomes daytime consumption. Pretty cool. Until I hit my U-turn. Was I self-sabotaging?

How did I reshape the U into an —-> ? By using the above painting, Sweet Dreams (12″x 12″), for a different purpose, I was able to see the intention of the series with a new hat on. I chose it for an ad in the directory listing for our upcoming East Bay June Open Studios. I’ve learned to get help on these ads so I met with my designer. We began to discuss the ad and I listened without judgement to what she was saying. Her words were precisely the descriptors I needed to hear to straighten out that U!

Listen more.

I was back in the game.

“Yes, the magic happens here. ”

That doubting mind is in those dreams too. Need to pull those suckers out and give them something else to do. They’ll definitely have a role in Pillowtalk.

XOXO,

Francesca

PS: Some more wild dreams might be coming true… stay tuned!