Lisa Schmitz*
Medium: Mixed – Acrylic, Craypa, Ink, Collage on paper 36” x 39”
Date Created: Painting Started on 7/25/08, completed on 8/29/08
Dream 7/24/08: I am excavating under my childhood home. I am using a spoon to dig and am making very little progress. I throw the spoon to the side and begin to dig with my hands, clawing at the earth. Once I break through the first layer, the digging becomes easier and something buried beneath the house is revealed. Even though it is revealed, I wake up with no real sense of what it was --only that something lost and hidden has been uncovered.
Dream 7/24/08: I lend money to one of my brother’s friends. He refuses to pay me back. In the dream, I curse, scream, threaten in an effort to get my money back. He laughs at me, dismisses me. I give him one last warning to pay. When he ignores me, I turn him into liquid. He melts into a puddle at my feet. Later in the dream, I call forth all the women in his family to help resurrect him.
Intention before Painting: I forgive my male ancestors and free myself in the process. I welcome and celebrate their return into my life and the balance available to me via their arrival. All is unfolding for highest good.
Journal Entry on 7/25/08: A black and blue foundation of paint is laid. “Black and Blue” – I think of a bruise, an injury, something that has to heal from the inside out. A picture of my paternal grandfather in a transparent, golden shadow cape – you can see the women, divine and shadowy. If he releases the clasp and the cape falls away, what will emerge?
Journal Entry on 8/2/08: A very disowned “I don’t want to” voice emerges from the darkness. My very own tantrum throwing, two-year old self is finally making her way out of the shadows. She is being resurrected by the energy brought forth by my 2-1/2 year old son. They are now allies and I don’t stand a chance. I’ve spent a lift time subduing her, beating her down. So out of the black and blue darkness comes the most beautiful crow – dancing, flapping her wings, making a fuss – cawing “no, no, no, I don’t want to!” I realize a disowned, buried part of me has been freed and that she is now accessible to me.
Title of Work: The Sleeping Bridge
Medium: Acrylic, Craypa, Chalk Pastel and Collage on paper 34” x 36”
Date Created: Painting Started on 12/31/08, completed on 1/12/09
Dream 12/31/08: A group of people are living in a protected, enclosed space. Outside of this space, dinosaurs and monsters roam, and it is dangerous and forbidden place for the humans. Regardless, several members of the tribe decide they must break out of their containment – one of these is a pregnant woman. Two of the tribal elders who decide to move outside the boundaries of the community, decide that they will take the pregnant woman with them, offering her protection and assistance on the journey. There are great obstacles and danger beyond the safety of their confinement, but they are confident they can escape. (Note: This was a very unusual dream for me – as this is one of the only dreams I have ever had in which I was not a character.)
Intention before Painting: Awareness and clarity emerge from my work today as it relates to last night’s dream. A bridge from the subconscious to the conscious allows images and information to flow freely.
Journal Entry on 12/31/08: I glue earth images – 12 circles placed within the vortex – worlds within worlds. A crow perches on top of the remains of a bus – decaying in colorful splendor in nature. The caption reads, “I understand, I understand."
Journal Entry on 1/08/09: I am realizing that the more opportunities I am giving myself to revisit or go back to a work, the deeper it takes me. How deep can I go? A whale spontaneously emerged and became part of the image. It seems to be diving downward, toward the bottom. What’s down there? All around the large circle are smaller worlds – representing different realities, different points of view. All of these worlds are connected with glittering lines to the crow in the center – making these alternate realities more accessible. The woman sleeping with the three crow feathers coming from her crown. The dream is happening beneath her. She seems to be the bridge.
Journal Entry on 1/12/09: The sleeping woman speaks, “the bridge you asked for in your intention is ALWAYS available. It is you! You, however must choose to cross over, must choose to break out of your box, out of the safety of your self-imposed limitations. Take a risk – inviting awareness and intentionality as you do so. What will you give birth to once you are there? Your dream clearly shows that you will be supported and guided. Trust this truth and take the threads of each dream image into the waking world.”
Title of Work: Giraffe in the Crisper
Medium: Mixed – Watercolor and Collage on paper 20” x 18”
Date Created: Painting started 2/4/02; completed 2/7/02
Dream 2/3/02: I am in my childhood home, where my parents still live. There is a huge storm, a hurricane. The back part of the house breaks off and begins to float away on a river of water that is coursing down the street. I ride the house down the rapidly moving water, trying to find ways to slow it down… to bring the house back where it belongs. My youngest brother joins me in this quest and together we bring the half of house to a stop. We somehow get it back to its original location. My parents are there, in the front half of the house -- unaware that anything has even happened. In the space where the back of the house broke from the front, is a doorway into another time and place. A foreign land that is rich with plant and animal life. The refrigerator from my parent’s house fell through the doorway. Its door wide open and covered in vines. My father is a young man in this place, and he is encouraging a little girl to take a bite out of a huge piece of watermelon. The little girl is me. She bites into the melon without hesitation, from a place of deep trust.
Journal Entry on 2/7/02: This is the first “literal” painting/collage I had done of a dream. The images were powerful and clear and it was fun to recreate the scene. The dream brought me back to a time when my father’s encouragement meant everything to me and I could trust without question or fear. This was lost to me in my teens and was never recovered. This dream left me feeling hopeful and opened me to the possibility of trusting again – not so much in people, but in a more universal energy and support.
Copyright 2009: All images contained herein are protected by copyright.
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.