“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
Now that I've painted all the visible parts of this city I am starting to imagine what might be invisible, what energies may be there, and what form they could take. Having been so closely involved with this piece since June on a micro scale I am coming to the point that I need to alter my perceptions of it. I am trying to see it now for its whole.
It's my first city with houseboats. If each house is a portrait of someone, the houseboats would be the travelers, the free spirits and the more rootless. Though each houseboat offers a sanctuary of its own.
I like to do "art within art". I love to paint paintings on the walls and include sculptures in the gardens. That's going to happen more in this piece.
Also more animal ideas are coming to me.
A few nights ago I dreamt of dolphins. According to my book of symbols dolphins "can be relied upon to buoy us up and carry us back to shore, protect us from marine marauders, keep us company in our lone passages through treacherous channels and, if we're lucky, escort our ships out of trouble before they founder in the first place." I will be putting a dolphin in this piece somewhere, not sure where yet.
I have been relieving stress by drawing in books these days. These drawings always show me that the bigger picture is quite clear and all my nervous worries are not what my life is about. I'm trying so hard to let them go.