If I could take tomorrow off work I'd...

This is for the Mama's Losin It blog which offers little writing assignments every so often. Usually I confine this blog to the dreams that I remember from my sleeping state, but a little variety doesn't hurt every now and then. :)

If I could take tomorrow off work I'd...

One thing come to mind: painting.

I've recently re-ignited my passion of Japanese and Chinese Brushpainting. I reach points in the painting where I can spend hours ink to the paper, creating the serenity that I seek.

I started a class last week in Chinese Painting at Burlington Community College with the venerable instructor Zhe Zhou Jiang. His enthusiasm for the art is infectious. I feel that I can finally 'reach that next level' so to speak in my art style. I believe it's just a matter of time, patience, and practice now.

So, yes, I would paint for as much of the day as I could. I would practice the Four Gentlmen strokes (Bamboo, Chrysanthemum, Plum Blossom, and Orchid). I would experiment with different 'colors' of black ink. Black Ink with water added creates shades of grey which are considered to be colors in their own right in this type of painting.

I am relatively decent with flora and still life as the subjects of my painting. Though I think I would focus on trying landscapes since it seems the next logical step in painting. Know the pieces before attempting the whole.

There we have it. I would let the madness that is my love of painting consume my whole day. Though I would have to remember to take a break to get something to eat. :) Hopefully, I'll have some paintings to post up to here soon.

EDIT:
An example from a few years ago:
Chinese Magnolia Watercolor on Cold-Pressed Watercolor Paper.

How long could you survive?

I could survive for 57 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia

The Dream Cycle, 2008.15

Meteoric Ocean

I was at the shore enjoying a beautiful day at the beach when I noticed a dark object in the sky. It was sphereical, maybe 20 degrees above the horizon out towards the ocean. It was about as big as the moon (from this perspective) and there looked to be sparks flying off of it. Then, I noticed that there were much smaller objects all around this big object and they were moving/growing. One of the smaller objects streaked down out of the sky and smashed into the ocean many miles out. Many people were startled at this impact but didn't seem to frightened.

Skip ahead a little bit and I'm in an seafront apartment. I happened to look out a window at the ocean and saw a massive tsunami approaching the city. The water was churning, chaotic, and very dark. After a few seconds the wave slammed into the city, the water level was just below my the window I was looking out. This apartment was up a few stories, around eight or nine. I remember making sure the window was tightly secured to keep the water out! (LOL) At that point I could see the water level rising slowly and eventually covering the window. It was strange, I knew there was no escape from it.

And that's all I remember.
(Four dreams in three days?? I'm a dreaming machine!)

The Dream Cycle, 2008.14

Lava Fields

Me and a few guys from work were going somewhere when the earth started spewing lava all over the place. We were doing everything we could to get away from the molten rock but there wasn't really anywhere to go. I remember seeing the ground bulge up in large mounds with it cracking in areas which glowed orangish-red from the lava below. Eventually we came to a mountainous park and went up to the highest area to get away from the destruction.

That's all I remember.

The Dream Cycle 2008.13

Godzilla in the Marina
I was down at the shore in a bayfront neighborhood where the canals run adjacent to the streets and snake between the houses every so often. I saw Godzilla rise up out of the bay and begin making his way towards the neighborhood. He wasn't as large as normal, maybe 40 feet tall. He came crashing onto the neighborhood and I went running from house to house to keep out of his sight but to also follow him. I wanted to see his purpose, find out where he was going.

I remember something about an army too, but I'm unclear on it, it's fuzzy.

The Dream Cycle 2008.12

Poisonous Fields of the Wolf Pack
I was standing in a field of flowers but as pretty as they were, I knew they were poisonous. What's more everything had a strange greyness to it, which created a very ominous feeling... foreboding.

In this field I came to realize I was being stalked by a pack of wolves, they were large - bigger than any wolf I've seen on TV. They were colored in different shades of muted purple and they looked... not right. Like there was something unclean or unholy about them.

I was circled by them, yet I tried to run, to get away. That is when they closed in, driven by the predator instinct. They tore me to pieces, I could feel my flesh, tendons, and bones separate. Different pieces of me dragged to different areas of the field and I still had consciousness in every piece of rent flesh. I had thought that it was the poison in the flower's pollen that kept my consciousness in my body. I could feel the teeth of the wolves gouging chunks of meat. I could feel the ground, grass, and flowers scraping against me as I dragged to the different areas of the field. And for a second, I had a bird's eye view of the grizzly scene... red adding to the grey and muted purple.