A dream that depicts positive transitions in waking life.

I am at the home where I used to live, it is a 1970s light blue Mercedes people-carrier truck. I go up the wooden stairs into the truck. It has wooden walls, all the same as it was back then, when I lived there with my ex-partner and his daughter. My ex-partner and daughter are there but not clearly, but like light rather than shadows. I tidy the place up as I am going to transition there, I am excited about this. I am going to burn down the home, with me inside, and I tell them to go outside. I pour petrol all around and have a large yellow box of "Cook's matches", I am about to strike a match. I hesitate due to fear of it hurting me, but then think that it won’t hurt as it is a dream. Despite being apprehensive I strike the match and the flames get close to me, on my flesh. There is then a change of scene and I am next to an outside large blue swimming pool, it is very sunny with tropical foliage around. I walk along the side of the pool and around it. I am wearing a pink cotton dress, which I actually had when I was 16. I want to jump into the water but have to set up my camera so that I can document it, to show proof of it to my friends. But before I can get ready I fall backwards into the pool and drop down deeply in the water. I slip out of my body and see myself weightless under the blue water. I then suddenly wake up.

I am outside the house where I live. As in waking life, there is the row of houses, a board fence, street, and a row of pine and spruce trees. It is night-time, 2 to 3 am. There are no streetlights or shadows. I am on my own and walk along the fence, the usual walk I do with my dog but my dog isn’t with me. I see two Hispanic men, walking in the same direction as me. They are about 100 feet apart from each other but are together, the one in front is older. I can’t see their faces, they have non-descript brownish or tannish clothing. Their hands are in their pockets, both are looking at the ground and not paying attention to me. Suddenly they are both in front of me, one has his hand over my mouth and I know that I will be assaulted. I wake in panic.   

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As with all our events, Julia Lockheart chose the pages from Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams to paint on while the dream was first being told. The choice of pages was on the basis of the shapes of the paragraphs and text. During the painting process Julia found words by Freud on the pages that were relevant to the dream, and she incorporated them as objet trouvé into the artwork:

I am walking in the street
 
the male    the hand    the female   by the mouth
 
imperatively forced upon
 
the symbol of a man
the dream of a young woman
her fear
 
This use of objet trouvé, a characteristic of dadaism and surrealism, is discussed in our forthcoming article in the International Journal of Dream Research.