Sketches | Openfoot Openfoot

"Even the mere painting of a picture can have an effect, curing a wretched mood, or bringing a release of tension. Through active co-operation of this kind the danger of floating aimlessly in an endless sea of fantasy is avoided and dreams become, not only a source of information but also of creative power": An Introduction to Jung's Psychology.

Sketches: In 1974 and '75 Openfoot made a good number of pen and ink sketches of which these are but the remainder. Even some of these are from photocopies of the originals which, together with many lost sketches, were given away to friends and acquaintances. More recently he has begun making photomontages and samples of these are included too. A slideshow of many of the images used to illustrate the dreams on this web site, together with other of Openfoot's images can be accessed via the right side menu bar.

Newborn: And amongst all of this something new emerges. Something not seen before. Something to amaze,delight and confound; beyond previous experience. Observe, cultivate and nurture it as you would a babe. (See Dreams 157,198 and 356)

A Jolly Giant? A Giant Ruler?: It's not all easy going! That formal, schooled, ego that's so fond of making distinctions, drawing lines, classifying , categorising, weighing and judging is going to come under some pressure from the forces of the unconscious mind. Be prepared to take the rough with the smooth.
(See Dream 245)

There was a man he leapt to and fro "Clipping away at a Hedge". (Acknowledgements to Caravan). Whose that then? He'll be pruning everything into shape given less than half-a-chance. You've go to make sure that everything is neat and tidy and conforms to preconceptions. We can't have any undirected organic growth or evolution here. There is of course always a chance that some floristic rebellion might get overlooked, and what might that blossom into?

New Ways to Cross the Great Water: (see LSD 399)

The Headmaster: Openfoot met many varieties of teacher in his dreams but this one is of a very traditional type. It all about certainty, facts,objects, linearity and the rule of the teacher. There is of course always the opportunity to do something behind this teachers back. Things to do with organic growth, systems, creativity and human spirt and passion. (See Dream 20)

On Home Ground (see D418)

Rock On: Well, there's no escaping sex! Not unexpectedly it figures prominently in may of Openfoot's dreams. Apart from those (not recorded here) that may well have arisen from sexual frustration and wish fulfilment, others are clearly indicative of an increasingly close relationship and union between different aspects of mind. (See Dreams 158, 245,and 314)

Lowest Common Denominator: Identity and individuality, union and separation, sameness and difference are universal themes. Why is it that we so often see our similarities as being based on our "lower" selves? Why the persistent focus on our Lowest Common Denominator rather than our Highest Common Factor. And when we meet the "higher" in ourselves why do we so frequently insist that it is "ours". Our truth rapidly becomes The Truth; we ignore the commonality and deny the "higher" in or of others, often with regrettable consequences.

I am the Ape Man, I am the Ape Man. You are the....... ? Well what's this coming in through the window all wild and hairy and with a great big grin on its face? No fine neat lines here. No carefully crafted design, this is free and raw. This not an "in control" ego this is an earlier ape like mind, a representative of unconscious forces breaking into the construction of egoic identity. (See Dream 105)

The Wall: What's full? What's empty? What's present? What's not? As Alan Watts would ask, "If I draw a circle on the wall what do you see"?

Opposing Thighs: So if you accept this not too subtle invitation what type of child might you expect to be born from these fine thighs? On the right thigh all the clarity and objective analysis of geometry and maths and on the left all the potential of organic growth and development exemplified by an animal that is amphibious in adult life, is born and swims in water, hops out on to land and transforms its entire being and morphology during its development! (See Dream 180)

Twin Saturn Vs: So many dualities, offering so many either/ors, but are they just an illusion, context dependent, arising only from a particular perspective? A good dose of both/and together with a strong sprinkling of indeterminacy, dependent origination and superposition all rounded off with a dash of field theory should put things to rights. When all is said and done, just reflections of.....

(See Dream 406 but for a single Saturn V see Dream 148)

The evolutionary stratification of the Psyche is more clearly discernible in the dream than in the conscious mind. In the dream, the psyche speaks in images, and gives expression to instincts, which derive from the most primitive levels of nature.Therefore, through the assimilation of unconscious contents, the momentary life of consciousness can once more be brought into harmony with the law of nature from which it all too easily departs. C G. Jung