When I have particularly interesting dreams I sometimes create photographic art from them.

I was surprised to learn that my dream of a turtle carrying the world on its back is a real myth. Except in my dream the turtle was flying through space. This myth appears in many cultures, Hindu, Iroquois, and Chinese. Some sources: http://native-science.net/Turtle_Elephant_Myth.htm and http://www.ulc.org/2013/09/camparitive-religion-the-world-turtle/. For this composite, created 1/23/2014, I used a picture of a fountain I photographed at Wall Street 7/12/2009, a turtle in Central Park 6/21/2013 and open source images from NASA.

I illustrated a dream that led me to take up Geology at Hunter College at the beginning of my second career as a cartographer. I dreamt that giant crystals grew so rapidly that they closed off a road in a tunnel. I used photos of my rock and mineral collection plus some images of a cave and road to create this composite.

I was very taken with the book called the Last Algonquin, by Theodore Kazimorov about Joe Two Trees who lived in Pelham Bay Park in 1924 New York City http://www.amazon.com/Last-Algonquin-Theodore-Kazimiroff/. It led me to dream about ghosts there. The bird and mist I painted in represents Joe’s spirit.

Birds, pyramid shapes, and an alien world set in a glowing iridescent star plasma were in my dream. The birds are the connecting force between the planet and the pyramid. The pyramid is an intersection between heaven and earth. I used my photos of a Common Yellowthroat Warbler in Union Square 1/20/2013, Roman glass at the Met 1/23/2013, and sky over Central Park 4/15/2006.

This is an old one done when I was learning to use Corel Photopaint in September 2001. I included it just to tell the story, not as an illustration of my skills. I had a dream of golden toads raining in a forest of golden leaves. It left me feeling very upset. Something was lost. I looked up golden toad (Incilius periglenes) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_toad and discovered it had become extinct because of us. Then I knew why I was so upset by the dream.