Bob Kathman
Medium: Ink on paper, digitally colored
Date: March 12, 2009
This dream, like many, is symbolic to me in different ways.
On the face value level, I play the role of the Door Keeper/Guard in a fantasy world where ogres and possibly magic exists, since somehow I know the will of the wise "holy hero".
On a moral level, I guard against these monster men, who out-number me. Yet knowing the "wish" of the Holy Hero implies I still have a choice to let them in or keep them out. What would be the heroic or braver choice?
Do the ogres represent choices in my own life? Do I follow a guide as to what to do...to do the right thing? By what criteria do I make decisions in my everyday life? Am I trying to protect just myself or should I consider protecting others in the castle? Do I acknowledge my own responsibility to myself?
And on the owner-of-the-dream level: The castle...is it my subconscious with many levels and walls, with a deep moat around it and a door I guard? Are the ogres aspects of myself, as is the Holy Hero?
The ogres don't really appear too monstrous, just menacing...as if their emotions make them dangerous. And the Holy Hero bears a sword. What "weapons" of protection do I own and wield when dealing with my "untamed emotions"?
Title of Work: Birthday Dream 2001
Medium: Ink on paper, digitally colored
Date: September 21, 2001
My birthday dreams seem to often hold extra significance for me. I recently found a few dreams from 2001 I had drawn in a sketch book.
The beach at night is almost like outer space, hugely dark, usually cold. Possibly a symbol for my subconscious again, or maybe even a collective unconscious.
I'm there with others. Patty is close and the others are strangers. I'm confronted with the familiar and the unfamiliar. There's excitement and then, by the end, a depression.
Somehow, I get personal prophesy. Is it mind communication-telepathy or magic and the miraculous? There's my birthday and then my death day and the mystery of how, when and where it will arrive. I get a clue but am I to believe it?
The following year (to the day) I actually did see a suspended object in the night sky I couldn't explain on the way home from work. The size was like a thin, hot air balloon (light bulb shaped) lit from within. Shockingly, a second or two after I saw it over a lagoon, it went dark like the flick of a switch.
Also, I had waited for 2001 to come ever since I was a kid (8?) when I saw the movie "2001" in the theater. I'd hoped I'd live to see that year.
Title of Work: Free Philosophy
Medium: Ink on paper, digitally colored
Date: December 30, 2001
The dream begins with my escape from a fearful situation that turns out to be a harmless situation. When I realize just how harmless my interaction with the stranger is, I get encouraged to continue to interact and even lighten the mood. In that sense, I'm able to provide "a light" and transform the feeling of the dream into a positive one.
It's humorous to me that I get distracted by a magazine cover. Getting engrossed by reading, looking at pictures is typical for me in waking life. Books are, in a way, like entering a dream state of strange characters and landscapes...even and maybe especially, emotions.
"Every dream is what you make it!" could also be kin to "Every day is what you make it!"
Title of Work: End of Dream Nightmare
Medium: Ink on paper, digitally colored
Date: January 17, 2009
This image was so stressful I woke up from it. The up-side of a nightmare is you wake up from them and there’s nothing wrong. A count-your-blessings message. I’ve since thought of this dream when I see people with body illness, skin abnormalities, etc., and feel compassionate for what they have to deal with, including going out to public places where they could face reactions from others.
I’ve also experienced going to the doctor when I’ve had a dream of a personal illness. Apparently there was nothing wrong and I felt like “better safe than sorry” but as some with warning dreams might agree, dreams can be warnings for many years away in the future.
Title of Work: Tornado Surfing
Medium: Ink on paper, digitally colored
Date: December 30, 2001
Another comic from my 2001 sketchbook. Looking for ways to weather a storm in my life perhaps…too long ago to judge. A good excuse for a flying dream without a being a nightmare.
Images may not be used, copied, transmitted or reproduced in whole or in part in any form
nor may they or any part of them be stored in a retrieval system of any nature
without written permission from the individual artist.