Building / Growing

I had a dream about a quilt the other night (yes, quilts are on my mind 24 hours a day!) The pattern was simple and very attractive to me; but even in my dream, my brain was sifting and analyzing to figure it out, to define a deeper meaning, a logical reason why it should be this way and no other (sad but true...this is the way my brain works—problem-solving and pattern seeking even while I'm sleeping—no wonder I'm tired when I wake up!)

When I tumbled out of bed, I went straight to my computer and worked through some tangible responses to my initial vision (depicted above) to define the elements that had meaning for me, extracting the two interpretations shown below.

The arrangement of evenly spaced horizontal rectangles piled one upon the other, creates a solid brick wall. This image speaks to me of stability: warmth and shelter that will endure and withstand the storms and vagaries of time; it represents the things we understand very well and know how to make for ourselves.

But my original vision was in brighter, softer shades which spoke to me of nature, alive and growing... so I altered the shapes in this second version to be vertical, varied and verdant (how's that for alliteration?) This image is all about the mystery of life that sprouts without our help and renews itself despite our misguided or unintentional efforts to suppress it; it speaks of freshness, individuality, and the breeze of inspiration blowing through us.

In the end, I like all three designs... but what sense did my analytical mind make of my dream? It told me that all things are made of basic building blocks, but how we choose to arrange them in our imagination has the power to determine what we perceive.