Using Dreams as a Filter

Using dreams as a filter for painting may sound surrealistic, but from certain aspects, it can be defined in a really realistic way, as if it's a moment of everyday life. I do not see myself painting a surrealistic moment, as i'm only defining the moment in my subjective 'virus of concepts', which is extremely realistic in my case. Apparently, this way of filtering a moment, or anything might cause a slight schizophrenia in perception, but the aim here is to make it possible for viewers to experience the very act of dreaming, bringing vision into envisioning.

A distorted perception and filtration of some particular terms is different in such ways;

filtration as definition is the act or process of removing something unwanted from a liquid, gas etc. by using a filter. I believe that this definition of filtration can be used as an act of control over dreams, emotions and distortions when painting. For me, painting is the act of using these elements as a filter, it's a painterly way of lucid dreaming. It's the separation of unwanted or unnecessary elements to be able to represent a 'better' version of the particular moment. As Odilon Redon has said in his autobiography, 'To Myself': 'There's a certain style of drawing that the imagination has liberated from the embarrassing concern of real details in order that it might freely serve only as the representation of conceived things.' 

Distorted Perception/Representation of a Moment

This topic led me to several definitions of 'distorted perception' when doing soft-search. Before writing about it's representation in a moment, it's best to understand what really a distorted perception is. A distorted perception is an abnormality in sensory or psychological perception. This can be the result of psychological disorders, damage to the brain or nervous systems, medications or other potential interruptions to the cognitive processes involved in perception. But i think we can all agree that one doesn't need to have a psychological or any other disorder to have a distorted perception.

Perception is pure in its original state. It can become distorted by what Bhante Gunaratana calls ' the virus of concepts '. Bhante points out that despite the initial purity of perception, ' concepts, ideas, opinions, beliefs, and many other categories of conditioning have influenced our perception. In essence, our perception has become distorted.

The representation of distorted perception in a still moment has a lot do with subjectivity of course and it may come out in such details that we only see when we're dreaming. Distortion in dreams is a whole other topic but it has it's influence on me when painting. Or, in other words, i believe that a distorted perception might transform into a distorted dream (in a painting), but only in details. When representing a still moment or an arrested motion with several distortions, i aim to effect the viewer's perception of the painting and create an illusion. I almost aim to create an effect of a lucid dream. Which, in my case is the awareness and control towards what's going on in the painting. When i'm painting, i have the ability to control the distortion of my perception, unlike in real life. That makes me gain control and helps me create a subjective area to reflect on. And when painting, just like in dreams, there may be repetitions of details and circling back on's.

It is a topic full of contradictions, but contradiction is the essence of it.

Arresting the Moment

As i'm still making researches about these topics, i've noticed that my continuing paintings do not completely relate with the term stillness, in the way i wrote at the previous posts. I get inspired from still moments, but i'm more into the distortion of perception and creating my own reflections on the painting, more than letting the viewer to have chance to reflect. I like the idea of holding on to that particular moment in the painting and arrest it in my own terms. There is still an essence of stillness but it's just a base of what is coming next.

One of the things that inspired me the most during this research was the movie '3 women' by Robert Altman. The movie has a dreamy atmosphere which is filled with a disturbing stillness and illogical details that can only be perceived when seeing a dream. The movie is mainly about personalities merging with each other but i found all of these aspects really inspiring for my work. This means that i will have to add more terms into my research, like dreams and distortion. All of these terms has a lot to do with stillness, or arresting the moment in my case, in which stillness becomes a base for reflection of subconscious aspects.