Carl Linkhart was born in Sapula,
Oklahoma in 1950, and has been a Bay Area resident since 1973. He
studied art at Yuba City College at Fort Mason in San Francisco, but
is largely self-taught, and has been influenced by his travels in
Thailand, India, Nepal, Burma, and Mexico. His film, Weekend Zombie
Nurses, was shown at the S.F. Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in 1985.
He has also performed in shows with the Angels of Light, The Sisters
of Perpetual Indulgence, and other groups. However, because of the
"Other worlds" it can create, his main love is painting.
Since his dreams have always been
vivid, colorful, and thought provoking, he took to exploring them on
canvas with acrylic in 1970. He has done covers for the Internet
magazine Electric Dreams, and has had several exhibitions, including
at the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, California. A book
of his dream paintings, Suspense Above the Pool, was published in
1998.
Artist's Statement
In the "Treasures of the
Future" dream, there are two lesbian friends we used to have.
They were once a couple but broke up. Perhaps I was sensing some
uneasiness in their relationship. They collected, or at least talked
about collecting, novel little objects, and in the dream I told them
to visit this little shop that existed only in the future. There they
would recapture souvenirs of their past. (I had the dream before they
broke up.)
The dream that goes with "Decayed
Fish Flambé" is a recurring one, and reflects my isolation and
despair during my four years in the Air Force (I was forced to join
during the Viet Nam war). It's about the search for gratification that
often just doesn't seem to exist.
In "Apocalypse of the Moon,"
a really astounding and vivid dream, I actually heard a huge thump as
I dreamt the moon fell on the earth and that people had to revert to a
primitive society that praised the moon until it rose back into the
sky with a gush of wind. When I woke from the dream, the air
conditioner at the house where I was visiting was making a gushing
sound.
