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The first time I started working on dreams was more than 20 years ago, in 1986. I worked with my dreams on and off until it became a permanent part of my life in the year 2000. It was Robert Moss’ book Conscious Dreaming which I received as a gift for my birthday that inspired me to pick it up again and at the end of his book I found the address for the Dutch association for the study of dreams (VSD, in full: Vereniging voor de Studie van Dromen).
Besides the personal benefits from keeping track of my own dreams I also became more involved in the VSD in Autumn 2001 when I joined the editorial team, providing the DTP work for the VSD’s quarterly magazine (Het Droomjournaal). On behalf of this magazine I also joined the association’s board in 2006.
An equally rewarding and again totally different approach to dreaming for me is painting. In a way painting came to me because of dreaming as it was a dream which told me to pick it up again and I’ve not stopped since.
There are three types of dream paintings I now work on, the first are the personal dreams. The second are series of smaller and less formal paintings in which I paint a dream of other people who all have something in common. The first series (entitled Your Dreams Exposed) displayed dreams of people who worked at the same corporation. The second series had dreams of VSD members and were displayed at the 10 year anniversary symposium. The third type is a new series I’m working on which are all on one theme.
My favorite quote:
As a child I could never understand why grownups took dreaming so calmly when they could make such a fuss about any holiday. This still puzzles me. I am mystified by people who say they never dream and appear to have no interest in the subject. It is much more astonishing than if they said they never went out for a walk.
- JB Priestley, "Dreams"
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