Lifestyle Losers, dream big baby!

Last night I had a dream that I was a contestant on a reality TV show called Lifestyle Losers. I had made it through the screen process so their were 12 of us total. 6 women and six men. I terrified one of the men at one point, he had done something for me and seemed the nicest of the lot. I threw my arms him in a hug and you’re the best, I just love you. He was terrified.

Before the contest I had been staying at my brother's in San Diego and I marveled at how I had been chosen. But I didn't really know the back-story, I just thought it was amazing.

The people in the competition were all sorts of people with problems, shyness, stupidity, nerdy, jocks, and at least two artist who couldn't make a go of their art. I assumed I was one of those. The people were pretty, or ugly in terns, and the goal, so far as I could tell was to prove that with a little help you could be great. My strategy was to be nice, outgoing, and show my talent but always play nice.

I didn't get off to a good start, I immediately stepped on a few toes.

We all ended up having to take a train somewhere. And on my way to the train, on of the guys working on the show gave me a friendly warning. He was the butler. He had yellow eyes like an animal. I found them terrifying, hypnotic, attractive and revolting in turns. He told me I wasn't well liked among the contestants, and he was impartial to my plight, but since I was oblivious to what was going on around me he figured he'd warn me, be careful. I think he liked me. He said he would be there for support for all of us, but he thought I needed a little looking out for...

Then we talked about his job. Being a butler. I had thought he was a strong arm, maybe security, not a butler. I mention I'd only known one other butler, my friend Jeff dated him. His name was Kevin, but I was blanking the name I kept coming up with Nat or Nate. He though he knew Kevin but he wasn't sure. He didn't think his Kevin would date a boy.

I told him I thought I could win. He agreed but said I'd have to shape up and be careful. I couldn't afford to alienate these people. We had been sitting in a car he reached across me to open my door. He was a big guy, there was an implied threat in the gesture.

I woke up.

And that was it.

We don’t have places like this in Boston.

This is what I remember form my dream the other night. I was standing on a bridge with a few people fishing on either side pulling up colorful fish after fish. The sky was grey and purple… the trees were that bright green of early summer. And the buildings around us, we were in a city where white and grey… old and stained. But the colors of the fish, and turquoise water and the trees were so saturated. I thought we don’t have anything like this in Boston. And that’s all that I remember!...

But I was painting this at the time I had the dream and I think it influenced my landscape.



The words were peacock, tent, stormy, drinking, and glamour.

Things I like about this piece:

That middle tree, the expression on the peacock with its head down, the color of the sky.

Things I don’t like about this piece:

Her mouth, the rainbow quality to the color, I should have made the tent darker or lighter.

Now I have start my Christmas card. Which is scaring my right now. I have some ideas but nothing solid yet. In a fit of despair I looked for inspiration in the one place I knew would enchant me. My big book of Jim Henson. Somewhere in the middle there are pictures of the Jim Henson Christmas cards through the years. Many simple, others elegant, others warm. 20 years from now I want to have a collection of card half so impressive. Which means I have to get started on this. Sigh… why is it so hard to get started?

Oh blank page I’m coming for you.

Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions

Last night I dreamt that all Long Warf had been converted into a submarine dock. And the military was sending subs in and out of the Harbor… The ferries were gone and the subs were moving so fast, too fast. I was afraid they’d crash into the docks. Sometimes they would slow down or go under and you got the feeling that they were diving under the city.

Then there was a talking cat. The cat was really a teenage boy that went missing 14 years before. He was under some sort of spell, and he needed to get back to his old apartment to find something to break the spell. So we decided to help him. There was a moment when we needed to find the key to his apartment and I knew to look in this metal mail slot for a magnetic panel that revealed a key. We walked up two tall flights for stairs, sneaking quietly into his apartment.

It was this amazing loft apartment build into a church. How I didn’t realize it was church before was beyond me. It was beautiful. His parents had died when he was 15 some sort of accident. And that’s when I did the math, this cat disappeared about 15 years ago when he was about 16 he’d be about my age. Hmmm… this could be interesting.

And then I woke up.



I did this drawing a few weeks ago. The words were genie, tropical, restaurant, dreaming, and believe it or not lamp. This is what I came up with. I wanted there to be a difference in color between dream in reality… of course the dream is in a little more in the real colors, and the reality is very dreamlike in color.