Impenetrable walls
One entrance
Locked by a key
Names, dates, faces
Remedies, examples, curiosities
Embroidered napkin, hole in the pocket, lock of hair
Pretty words, strange faces, sunset at the lake
exposed wrists, cold room, red nose
Do not forget!
I often dream of a huge castle. Full of cold, dark, winding corridors. All the windows are covered with thick curtains. The furniture, covered with sheets, haunts with its deformed silhouettes.
I hear the ticking of an old clock, rushes me. I check each room. In one of them I find a large wooden chest. It's locked with a big, heavy padlock. I start looking for the key. I look in drawers, cupboards, under beds. The clock is ticking more loudly. The corridors are getting longer, the ceilings lower. I look into every nook and cranny. In one of the small dark rooms, in a drawer of a beautiful baroque desk, I find a brass, large key. I return to the chest - try to open the lock – with no success. I continue searching. The clock is ticking faster now. I find another key in the kitchen, in the tea tin. I run to see if this one might fit. Another fiasco.
I decide to find as many keys as possible and then try them all at once so as not to waste time going back to the chest each time. I am very through, but also in a big hurry. The clock ticks very distinctly, I can hear it behind me almost all the time. I keep looking back. I am alone. I find several different keys. Small and large, beautifully carved and just plain. I return to the chest. I try each one and at the last one I can hear the lock letting go and...
...I wake up, of course.
Forgive me, I know how frustrating this is. Stories interrupted in the middle can drive anyone mad. This dream repeats itself very often. I'm not always looking for keys. Sometimes I'm looking for puzzles, sometimes I'm collecting children's toys, ribbons, matches. I always have a strong feeling that someone is watching me, and that if I don't pass this test.... something terrible will happen. This feeling of danger stays with me sometimes even after I have woken up. Then I feel uncomfortable all day, it is difficult to concentrate on anything, I am out of rhythm. I walk around the house purposelessly.
In order to help me tame this dream a bit and by the way improve my terrible memory - a few years ago I started to use the space from this dream to build my 'memory palace'.
Here short definition source
A Memory Palace
is an imaginary location in your mind where you can store mnemonic images. The most common type of memory palace involves making a journey through a place you know well, like a building or town. Along that journey there are specific locations that you always visit in the same order. The location are called loci, which is Latin for locations. (singular: locus, plural: loci )
It is an old technique that works well for remembering large amounts of information. It doesn't matter if it is historical events, mathematical rules or a recipe for cheesecake.
The memory palace can work for anyone if it is properly adapted to our needs. When I first learned this technique, I had my family home in mind, where I knew every nook and cranny, every shelf, the contents of every cupboard. Sometimes I would make up stories or rhymes to make it even easier to recall the information. After a while, my 'memory house' started to feel like a junkyard.
Sometimes it is nice to revisit a poem we learnt as kid, or causally recall facts from the battle of the Somme.
But space began to run out. Paradoxically, I was helped by my night terrors, which have accompanied me almost since I can remember.
The big castle I visit in my dreams has enough space to store not only historical facts, song lyrics or birthdays, but also passwords, codes and numbers to remember in case of trouble.
The memory palace requires a lot of work, and is a very dreary technique to begin with - but it is really worth a try. Start with a small space, like a tree house :)
About drawing
I started by sketching the figure with a soft 4B pencil. I wanted the figure to be very proud, and full of distance from the viewer. I did not have a ready-made image in mind. For some reason I couldn't get the image of St Patrick's Cathedral in NY out of my head. I was looking at pictures of gothic and neo-gothic cathedrals, and although my favourite is Koln Cathedral (Germany), I chose St Patrick's church, I really like the front of it, with the strong divisions and the rosette in the middle.
I thought to myself that the Sleeping Kingdom needs a guide, a guardian perhaps even. Someone who watches over and observes those in deep sleep.
I continued with my favourite black pen. I have used black acrylic ink to do solid black background and white paint to add a little bit of light to it.
As always – excited to see your comments!
Have a good week!
Yours,
Strega Azure
I have used pencils 4B and 2B, black 'no brand' black pen(Tesco's), black acrylic ink, white acrylic paint, and solvent.
Drawing & pics are my authorship if not stated otherwise, all rights reserved @strega.azure ©
https://leofinance.io/threads/@strega.azure/re-leothreads-6x1hqu
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I absolutely adore how your brain connects words and imagery together so delightfully.
I have similar visions of a citadel, but not in my dreams. Sometimes in my waking moments. It's strange. Not a hallucination, but a sort of a day dream when my eyes are closed. I've never gone inside, though.
My brain just works strangely. In each window of the citadel, there's a room that I can imagine what lies within, and that my be a story, a photographic concept, or an errant thought. It's an enormous, incomprehensible structure, and much like looking out to the lit windows of a cityscape full of apartment blocks, there's thousands upon thousands of stories and "people" within each.
Thank you:) But it's usually quite problematic in real life though :)It's all interconnected up in my head, which makes it very difficult for me to stay on one topic. The edges of the concepts blur together, they submerge neighbouring topics. I try very hard to stay with one thought, but this thought provokes more of those, more and more distant. It is easy to get entangled in all this :)
So you have a mine of ideas at your fingertips. It is good to be able to recognise and harness what lies beneath the surface.
Daydream sounds interesting. Do you having those often?
It is either entirely entangled, or entirely interconnected. All a mater of perspective. That sentence was unintentionally spiritual. My mind seems to work in a similar way to yours. The voices of so many ideas of creations cry out, but I can only answer to one at a time without becoming completely and totally overwhelmed.
I daydream a lot more than I "night dream". My sleep is just blank, when I get it.
Yes, that's exactly what it is! And just to pick one thought at the time is really difficult. That is the very reason why I quite often stare on blank piece of paper, I have to chose something. One thing. One thought. And then stick to it, which is even more challenging. If I would meant to keep up with my way of thinking I would have to redraw/repaint one piece 10 times at least :D
I don't think I ever daydreamed. I usually have my thoughts quite far away, but I would say it is just myself having a very dreamlike nature. But night dreams on the other hand - those I have very vivid. Even if they are very surreal, they are incredibly detailed, that completely distorts my sense of reality. I am hardly ever aware whatever this is dream or not. Level of immersion is sometimes so deep, that when I am waking up, a just can't get over it. Whole day I feel hangover nearly.
The most annoying dream is the "Groudhog day" dream, where you dream that you wake up, get ready, and repeat that a few times before actually having it occur in the corporeal realm.
I'm good at staring off into space blankly. I get told I'm statuesque on work video meetings. :D
I haven't had those in a while. Hate those! But I have quite often the same dream, but with little changes, sometimes I can plainly see that my way of thinking and the way I see my problems is changing.
:D I bet, those are soul-ripping!
Wowo it's a very detailed piece and looks amazing, the work with the shadows and lighting is just insane. Great job!
Thank you for all kind words! Cheers!
This is a powerful drawing! The perspectives, mixture of small details and large structural elements, and the proportions on the body are all so well-executed. A truly great piece of work, Strega, and thank you for sharing it. 😊
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I am glad you like it! Thank you for popping by!
Fantastic work 👌.
Thank you!
Wow the composition and execution are top notch <3
Thank you very much!
Thank you for visiting my blog:)
Wow... Just wow
This is magnificent...so so good.
The drawings the writings.. everything is just too good.
Was a good view and read... Thanks to @dreemport for making me cross paths with this post and thanks for posting Sir
I am glad you liked it! Not Sir by the way:)))
Happy to see you around, and I ma glad you find my work interesting!
Cheers!
Wow... Sorry for that gross mistake
I didn't know Actually.
Your work was very much appreciated and deserved all the praise
Don't worry about it, I am certainly not bother by it at all:)
Thank you you very much again, always nice to see you around!
Your dream reminded me of the movie 'Saw', especially when you said someone was watching you. I found the memory palace thing very interesting, in fact it was inspiring for me and I see it was for you too.
The drawing and details are spectacular, you are very dedicated and talented. I like this kind of fantastic art where all the ideas conjure up a story on paper. Your vision has impressed me, never lose those strange dreams.
Oh, I have seen 'Saw' ages ago, but fortunately my dreams are more surreal, rather than gore - for which I am thankful :)
I am glad you like my piece:)
See you around!