Living in a Dream World

As a graphic designer, pretty much all the visual work I do is for others. It tends to be done with deliberation and purpose, towards a particular destination and on a fairly strict schedule. It's a journey with a map and a timetable—although it may involve occasional spontaneous side trips—and it tends to involve a whole lot of other people on the tour. Sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm actually even a traveller, or if I am the bus driver. :)

As an artist, the work I do is more often just for myself... but I find it challenging to break out of the corporate design routine and allow myself some relaxed visual playtime, to wander along an unexplored path on my own, for no real purpose and with no fixed destination in mind, just following where inspiration beckons.

(Note to all the professional fine artists out there: I'm definitely NOT saying that design is work and art is play - they each require elements of both... just that for me, the playtime part of my design work always seems to be done with one eye on the clock and one hand on the wheel.)

It occurs to me that dreams offer a great model for play in the creative process: in dreams, we seem to be able to explore the world in a completely different way. We suspend our logic and belief systems and just go where the dream takes us.

I'm pretty tired this morning, and really not all that keen to wake up completely—or to work hard at writing anything sensible or profound—so instead, today I am simply sharing a series of images from a colourful dreamtime journey, a play-time exploration from the seed of a dream-like image, a reflection of departure from the office at the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the winter.