“Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.”
Antonio Machado (1875-1939)
Clarissa Pinkola Estes speaks of a core in each of us:
“a place in the psyche, where the dreams, stories, poetry and art meet…the images and language that arise from that core are so important. In combination, they have the power to change one thing into another in a way that is difficult and torturous to accomplish by will alone. In this sense, the core Self, the instinctual Self, is both healer and life bringer.”
I am learning through the process of image making to feed myself from that core by allowing the conscious mind to access the dream state. In order to contain the dream I must be willing to hold the space the dream needs to occupy–I must be willing to hold emptiness. This requires that I stop my obsessing with what I “do” and rather, allow my Self to “become” by practicing a deeper willingness to listen. For me, art is what results from this deep listening, the pictures function as the dream’s voice and become the way my unconscious informs my waking life.
