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Dreaming

On Dreams and Artistic Ambition

The creativity of dreams is explained in a video.

Like slot machines on a beach pier, dreams pop out compact tokens of the emotions that haunt us and we can't acknowledge in waking life. The token becomes useful – a sign of what emotions are really at our center and a reminder of our inborn creativity and wisdom.

In dreams, we talk in a language that we are scared to use or have forgotten how to use by the time we wake.

Today I'm posting a video I made about the painter Noah Saterstrom, who works in Nashville, Tennessee. I first learned about Noah's paintings when I came across his work-a-day page on Facebook, where he would post one painting or drawing every day. The practice seemed like evidence of a fluid relationship to his own creativity. To post one painting a day is to allow yourself to be you, to not edit that self, to let the most powerful unconscious insight sit.

I drove out to Nashville to meet him, and the ensuing journey brought me face to face with my own dreams, the frustrations of being an artist, and the fun we forget from childhood.

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More from Ilana Simons Ph.D.
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More from Ilana Simons Ph.D.
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