Lucid Dreams Now OPEN

“Lucid Dreams” opened Friday night welcoming close to 500 art patrons who toured the San Diego fine art gallery taking in 32-featured artists. Steady flows of people filtered in and out of the gallery throughout the night, discussing the work and appreciative of the craft and high level of work presented.

A dark blue wall illuminated Irene Hardwicke Olivieri’s “Rising Above Resistance” and Bonnie Marie Smith’s “Heaven and Earth,” comprised of 27 individual earthenware and porcelain sculptures provided heart-felt perspective and a warm welcome to the exhibition’s eclectic diversity. (Pictured above).

Details featuring

Bonnie Marie Smith, Mark Todd, Tasha Kusama

“Eclectic” is an endearing term for the Narrative Art collection of artisans united under one common theme “Lucid Dreams.” A multifaceted collection of talent representing Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and the United States—east/west and everything in between.

Souther Salazar : Half Asleep + Tim Hussey : Set Adrift 3

Artists were united between narrative genres including sculpture, comics, high and outsider art and in compliment of Romanticism (Rai Escalé), Abstract, Expressionism (Tim Hussey), POP (Mark Todd), Non-Objective Painting (Loubard), Street (Marco Zamora) and Folk Tradition (Kevin Paulsen, Esther Pearl Watson) art movements. “Eclectic” is the assortment of 60 original works created by 32 luminaries who invite question, introspection and the opportunity to dream within each piece.

Marc Burckhardt : Kindred +

Kevin Paulsen : Spoor of Man with Fireflies No. 2

“Lucid Dreams” is all about the community united in the name of art (32 featured artists), threaded together by poetry (Doug Tanoury), held together by the gallery (San Diego) and the curatorial push by Mark Murphy. On Friday, invitation was answered and “true” community united, as hundreds of onlookers moved about with much to say, sharing in a positive experience, a wave of energy much like a visit to the ocean.

Ludovic Boulard Le Fur / Loubard : Self Portrait + explanation map

The buzz is out. And many people to be thanked—my Parents, who traveled in from Cleveland, great friends—John Purlia for writing an exceptional review, my assistants—Jillian Seaman who single handedly brought in last year’s “Survey Select” and Madison Blades—who reached out to the community with style, Florabella for ALWAYS rocking the floral in the most beautiful of ways, KANON Organic Vodka for delivering the best I have ever personally tasted, Doug Tanoury for writing original poetic prose, SD CITYBEAT and KPBS for their universal support, ALL 32 artists for their unwavering support, dedication and inspirational voice and YOU—the kind folks who travel, thank and share their experiences with family and friends.

Rai Escalé : Wash Me Clean + Jonathan Viner : Hairpin

Friday, July 8 was one year and one day after the premier of last year’s “Survey Select” and provided the next chapter in furthering the dream for the Museum of Narrative Arts. Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery is the location for “Lucid Dreams,” featuring four more events and daily hours, now through August 9, 2011. Please share your dreams and join in “Lucid Dreams.”

A Dreamer’s Dialectic by Doug Tanoury

The parallel between poetry and dreams have been a subject that has fascinated me for many years. The most striking similarity to me is that poems and dreams share a common language. Poetry is written in the language of dreams. Their common language is metaphor, symbolism and irony. These ancient communication devices are hardwired in human hearts. They bubble up and blossom most fully in our dreams.

I have been half-amused and somewhat satisfied by the thought that everyone is a poet. From an artistic standpoint I consider myself egalitarian, and in so much as everyone dreams, everyone weaves poems, using the tools that make poetry. Every dreamer is a poet and every poet a waking dreamer. The devices of poetry extend beyond the art form and are highly effective at quickly and efficiently communicating concepts with powerful impact. This is primal and primitive communication and it speaks more heart to heart, than mind to mind.

Dreams and poetry share a similar landscape where images hold more power than thoughts and words, where symbols carry more than concept but also trail emotions, metaphors hammer home more than meaning and irony cuts through pretense and preconceptions with painful intensity.

Dreams and poems are both the creations of a primordial part of the human psyche. A poem emerges from one’s unconsciousness, and as it passes into consciousness it is shaped and crafted by a poet’s technical prowess and stylized by their artistic skills.

As a young poet I was interested in using the tools of dream interpretation to analyze my own work and the works of other poets. I went beyond the standard psychological interpretation methodologies of Freud or Jung, for I have always found strictly clinical approaches not very effective. Reductive clinical techniques do a disservice to dreamers and therefore to poetry. Their focus is too narrow and confining: one must rather take an expansive approach to interpretation.

I approach interpretation of a poem as a poet, open to infinite possibilities and multiple meanings. I quickly discovered by using these methods that “a cigar is never just a cigar”. A thing is never “just a…” or “merely a…” for that is the reverse method used by clinicians to debunk symbols. Symbols always carry more meaning than the communication vessel alone; it makes things more than what they are. That is the magic of poetry and the magic of dreams. It is what elevates the poet and the dreamer, who even when they sleep are driven to common creation by something in them that always remains partially awake.

Doug Tanoury has been authoring poetic prose since a young boy. Doug’s poetry is featured in this year’s “Lucid Dreams,” now on display through August 9, 2011. You can read more here—A—B—C. Thank you and enjoy.

(Featured details from “Lucid Dreams” artwork from top: Tasha Kusama, Marc Bell, Tim Hussey).

A Dream’s Repetition by Doug Tanoury

Doug Tanoury has written his third and final poem for “Lucid Dreams.” Doug is a forever dreamer who began composing poetry as a boy and thankful to share his work. Doug writes,“I am lucky to have an opportunity to practice my craft all of my adult life.” (featured above : Esther Pearl Watson, “Gas and Coke,” 18x18" mixed on canvas)

Billy Norby : Dawn : 18x18" : oil on panel

45 Featured artists and myself are preparing for what is shaping up to be another diverse and spirited art collection—I invite you to share the writings and artwork of “Lucid Dreams” with friends. Thank you, and save the date (FB) for a look at the show in person July 8 through August 9.

Jonathan Viner : Hairpin : 18x18" : oil on panel

Thank you Doug Tanoury for sharing your dream. Stay tuned, as Doug will also be writing an essay regarding poetry and dreams soon. “Lucid Dreams” is the second exhibition investigating deep narrative in fine art. For more information please join the Museum of Narrative Arts on FB. (PR) (Artists)

A Dream’s Repetition

I return again and again
To a dream’s repetition,
Repeated nightly
Where I find myself at
La Plaza de Toros en Mérida
On New Year’s Day.

The band is playing a merry tune,
And I am sitting with a large crowd
In the sombre seats
Enjoying the cooling shade
On a brightly burning afternoon
That is a dreamer’s respite.

In the ring a matador
Opens his traje de luces,
Unbuttons his vest
To expose his torso to
A white bull lowering
Its head and raking its hooves.

It charges like a
Massive avalanche of snow,
A mountain top speeding forward
To meet the sunset of a
Crimson cape and
Then I awake.

Doug Tanoury—June 25, 2011

Small Dreams by Doug Tanoury

“Lucid Dreams” fine art exhibit is fast approaching, July 8—August 9, and features the imaginative talent of 45 fine artists and Doug Tanoury who has created another great poetry entry, “Small Dreams.”

For me, collaborating with artists is an amazing dream. Curating any exhibit is more than a casual display—it’s a heart-felt affair—friend filled and brings a community of artists together who strive for excellence because of each other. The process is “lucid” as the exchange between each artist is open, form finding and mind-shifting.

Small Dreams

In dreams

Lit in barroom light

Like a dim lounge

Of a neon-blue nebula,

Where everything

Is shadow and silhouette

And nothing is seen

In full illumination.

I dream of her

Sitting lotus style in a large hall,

And she wears sheer white

Flowing fabric

That floats slowly

On the air

Like feathers

As she moves.

She is bird-like

In the smallness

Of fragile frailness,

As she sits

Alone upon the floor

Looking up at me.

She is a sparrow

Fallen from a nest.

The anger that was

Between us,

Suddenly never was.

We feel only love and loss,

And are touched

With soft forgiveness,

The confused vulnerability

Of dreamers.

And as I bend over

To embrace her

She is a nestling

Once again, wedged

In that small space

Supported by

The branching arteries

Of my heart.

Doug Tanoury 6-18-11

Featured images: Wash Me Clean by Rai Escalé (15.35x15.74" : acrylic on collage mounted on wood) and “Rising Above Resistance” by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri (18x8.5" : oil on wood shaped board).

Lucid Dreams opens July 7 at the Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery with special events for Comic-Con on July 22, Film Premier on July 27 and Contemporary Narrative Panel on Friday August 5. Check back for more details.

Please RSVP—sign up—and check out the featured artists who have inspired “Lucid Dreams.”

Doug Tanoury’s Lucid Dreams Poetry

Doug Tanoury poetry will accompany the “Lucid Dreams” exhibition taking place at the Noel-Baza fine art gallery in San Diego July 8—August 9. Originally, I discovered Doug’s inspirational prose at “Scene 360,” an online film and arts magazine on March 14 of this year. The entry was fluid and Doug’s poetic verse was accompanied by the artistry of Kent Williams and James Jean, promoting closer exploration.

(Above: Marc Burckhardt, “Kindred,” 10.5x12.5,” acrylic & oil on wood panel.“We carry with us our experience, and read our dreams—and the images we encounter—through that filter).

Doug Tanoury will be creating a series of original poems for “Lucid Dreams” and made available through the end of the exhibition. Doug’s poetry is soulful and a continuation of his work established in Detroit during the seventh-grade.

A Dreamer’s Journey

I search for her in my dreams

Wearing the bowl shaped helmet of Hermes,

Covered in dark blue velvet,

With white feathered wings

Protruding from its sides.

For somewhere along a dreamer’s journey

We were separated and I lost her.

Frantically l look for her and

Fly on the night air, weightless

And light as a baroque concerto.

The mercurial and malleable nature of love

Confounds and confuses me, for it is

Like the phantasmal spirit of God,

It flickers in and out of existence,

Present one moment, absent another.

I stop searching for a moment

Befuddled under a dark lapis sky

That holds strange constellations,

And as I stand alone in an exotic

Dreamscape half-conscious

Of being here before with her,

An allusive memory that runs,

Escapes and scatters

Like beads of quicksilver

That slip through grasping fingers.

In the weird tautology that is

A dreamer’s agenda, I forget all purpose,

My sense of mission muddled, and

Thoughts of her are lost once more in

The sleepy eclecticism of a summer night.

Doug Tanoury

June 11, 2011

Happy St. Patrick’s Day : Detroit Rock City

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. With so much happening in the world it is a well deserved day to visit the pub with your bub. To celebrate this most hallowed tradition, as 50% of me is Irish, the other 50% Lebanese—Guiness goes great with Hummus by the way—I am working hard to prepare for a trip to Detroit. (Brandon Boyd, image above).

Not just any trip, mind you. A get to work, learn me some skills and get inspired with the fine folks at the College of Creative Studies. My good friend and fellow artist Donald Kilpatrick has invited me to work with his classes, experience the letterpress lab and share a few thoughts on Tuesday, March 22 at 11:20 am at the Wendell W. Anderson Auditorium—W.B.Ford Building (Ford campus) at the College of Creative Studies. You are all invited. (Mark Murphy, image above).



And as “luck” would have it, there is a group show, “Lyric,” this Saturday night at 323East Gallery curated by Glenn Barr featuring Jeff Soto, Gary Taxali, Calef Brown, Travis Louie, Kathie Olivas, Brandt Peters and many more.

To prepare, I touched base with Glenn and learned that he had invited many artists that I have collaborated with in the past requesting a musical motif transcription and its words onto canvas. Glenn shares. . .



mM: loved the hand scrawl on your postcard and the promotional pieces you put together for Lyric.

GLB: gosh thanks!

mM: How was it to curate the show and how has the response been?

GLB super strong response... even from the jaded Detroiters. ha. and curating the show was a piece of cake... I just contacted a few fave artists that I new and BAM!.. instant show. Think I'll be doing more in the future...hated not being able to get even MORE artists involved but it's a quaint little gallery space...(Jeff Soto, pictured above)



mM : knowing you will get totally busted, what are some of your immediate favorites?

GLB: only seen a few pieces and I've been completely blown away... Gonna have to see for you're self. Ha!

mM : describe a little bit about the theme Lyric?

GLB: The theme LYRIC seemed like such a universal subject that I knew my artist friends would LOVE to tackle it. Everybody is inspired by music in some way. Everybody has their favorite song… Everybody interprets songs differently too. So how ‘bout your fave artist transcribing a LYRIC into a visual narrative?…. I think it was really easy for these artists to transcribe something they know A LOT about.... I think we all listen to music while we work and paint... right?...(Gary Taxali, pictured above).

mM : what's next for the world according to Glenn Barr?

GLB: solo show at La Luz de Jesus in June, solo show in Italy at MondoPOP Gallery in the fall AND a book thru LAST GASP called "Glenn Barr's FACES" this Sept. Also a print(s) release thru Circus Posterus like within the next 2 weeks and working on toys and bronzes!.... yay. love bronzes....(Calef Brown, pictured above).



Thank you Glenn Barr. Looking forward and ready to crank out some work to prepare for my trip to Detroit and the College for Creative Studies.

The luck of the Irish has me smiling, as I recently discovered the great poetic talents of Doug Tanoury while working on the article for James Jean’s show “REBUS.” Doug grew up in Detroit and recently relocated to Richmond, VA. Bummer, as I had invited him over to the CCA lecture on Tuesday to recite his poetic prose. His art, artists and lyrical quality of his prose is all inspiring. Check him out. More soon and enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. (James Jean, image above).