I had a dream. It seems important, so I'm writing it down. For the most part, the entire dream was in grey scale, unusual for me.

I was in an art class. The assignment was to draw a still life of a folding chair that the instructor had brought in and set down in front of a fire place. We were each to interpret the chair in our own style.

When the dream started, I had already finished my project and was helping another student with his. He was trying to draw a caricature of himself sitting in the chair and was tracing a photo of himself for reference, using a "Sharpie" marker. The photo was incomplete and he was having a hard time of it. The instructor came over and told me that I should be working on my own project. I told him I had already finished it and he said "I know. I can only imagine what you must have created." Apparently I had quite a good reputation in the class. Another student had created a very detailed engineering drawing of the chair, using AutoCad (a program I use for work).

When I showed my project to the instructor he was amazed. I had not drawn the chair at all. I had drawn a VERY realistic looking pencil (or charcoal) drawing of one of the end irons for the fire place. He was very impressed and said "You have captured the essence of the chair by NOT drawing it! And the drawing of the end iron looks more Real than the real one! Be sure to include that one in your portfolio!"

(Remember, this is all in shades of gray, like watching a black and white TV.)

So I take out my portfolio and am surprised to see it is made up nearly entirely of projects made by cutting out bits of multi-colored construction paper to make a scene, much like you may have done in first or second grade, and of about the same quality. And the whole thing is in vibrant   c o l o r ! The only thing so far that is. So, I take my pencil drawing and tuck it between a couple of the pages toward the front, flip to the back and start making a construction paper "drawing" of a  blue swimming pool  with  orange float-toys  in it.

My instructor looks over my shoulder and says "We're not interested in that stuff. We want to see more of your Real work!"

I say, "But this is just as Real as the other, maybe even more so," but take up my sketch pad and pencil anyway. I'm hungry and decide to draw a beer and pizza as a joke. It is, of course, a VERY realistic looking beer and pizza. So much so that another student comes over and eats it, becoming a part of the drawing.

This, of course, gives me quite a start and I begin to question the nature of Reality. What is a drawing and what is "Real"? And I begin to draw the universe, the cosmos with all the planets and stars and such, creating the reality of solar systems and galaxies with my pencil. The reality/drawing is getting quite large, of course, and as I approach Infinity, there it is ...

... A Picture Frame. It's one of those museum quality frames, carved wood, overlaid with gold leaf and enamel inlays. To make matters worse, it's in full, vibrant, living   c o l o r . There is nothing but white beyond the frame.

And I then wake up.

In the near future, I hope to have a page here with some of the insights I've taken from this dream. There's a lot here and it bears looking into.

Also, this page is just screaming for some appropriate graphics. Patience please, I'm working on it.