Nancy Richter Brzeski has come to
art by a roundabout route. Born in N.Y.C., raised in Pittsburgh, PA, she
received her B.A. at the University of Michigan, her M.A. in Sociology at
the University of Chicago. She lived in Oslo, Norway for four years and
worked as a research associate at the Institute for Social Research in
Oslo. Her interest in dream-inspired art developed in Northern California,
where she settled in the late '50s.
She has participated in eight international
juried art shows arranged by the Association for the Study of Dreams. Her
installation, "High Flyin' Bird," and the Holocaust collage,
"Margit Trattner," were exhibited at Mad River Post, a San
Francisco video facility, during the summer of 2000. They were later on
loan to the San Francisco Zen Hospice house on Page Street where she did
weekly volunteer work for one year.
Other examples of her work may be seen on
her website:
www.nancyrichterbrzeski.com
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
I have been making Dream Art systematically
since 1983. I have used art as a means of understanding my dreams and
sharing them. I have always tried to be true to the mood and message of
the dream. I feel very grateful to all those ASD people who have
encouraged me, especially Richard Russo, Fariba Bogzaran, Rita Dwyer, Ann
Sayre Wiseman, Gayle Delaney and Loma Flowers, Jeremy Taylor, and Joanne
Rochon.
___________
"You Can't Take It With You"
This slide represents a preliminary sketch
of a larger collage that is in process. It is the dream of an old woman
whose family of origin and dearest friends are already "on the other
side." It contains the main dream images. Though the context is
personal, it addresses everyone nearing the end of the journey and facing
death.
"Kwan Yin (The Face of Love)"
This was one of many sketches I made,
trying to recreate the vision I saw at the end of a "soul retrieval
journey" in Robert Moss's dream workshop at Esalen in September 2000.
It came from the mysterious source from which all dreams come. It is my
gift to this war-torn, terror-ridden world.
>From my Esalen notes:
"I saw a kaleidoscope of wonderful colors and strange patterns,
changing every time I blinked my eyes. Intense colors. Lemon yellow,
golden yellow, orange, red-orange, jade green, blue-green, and an
incredibly beautiful deep violet. The whole rainbow. I felt overwhelmed by
the intensity and beauty of those colors. I saw the sun, and wondered if
it was the sunrise or sunset? I sensed a huge face very close to mine,
though I could barely see it through the thick fog, saw only the eyes
half-closed. I thought, "Whose face is it? My own? Mother's?
Granny's? The 'face of God'?" Later that day I said to my
soul-retrieval partner, Marirose, "Maybe it was Buddha's face."
She said, "I saw the same face."
