Art Conscious Dream

I dreamed today that I had returned to college for an art class. I arrived early for class and found the instructor, a middle aged black woman, at the front of the classroom contemplating a painting that she had painted and was presenting for that days lecture. The painting was an abstract watercolor self portrait, black on white canvas, about 3x4 feet tall. It stood on a pedistal at the front of the room facing toward the seats. The instructor stood near a lecture podium as she mused over her work of art from a few feet in front of it. I approached without speaking so as to politely not disturb her. I stopped near the front of the room and also began contemplating her portrait. She then began speaking to me as if we were already in the middle of a conversation about the painting. She said, “Notice how some parts are well defined, such as my arms and my hair, while other parts are intentionally obscure, such as my legs and torso.” I noticed what she was talking about in the painting. The “well defined arms” she spoke of were black rectangular shapes that seemed to extend either out of or into the painting, depending on how you looked at it. The “hair” which clearly defined the position of the subjects head, was a sharply defined black arch near the top of the painting. The “legs”, and other parts of the painting were extremely vague by comparison. After a pause, long enough to allow me to take all this in, she said, “The parts that are well defined express the focus of my consciousness as I worked on the painting. The parts that are blured are areas that my mind was trying to avoid being aware of. For example, see how blured and misshapen the legs are? That is because my legs were causing me pain at the time.” I saw exactly what she meant, and I could almost tell her exactly how her legs felt just by looking at the painting. Then I suddenly “opened up” to the painting and I started “seeing” reflections of my own consciousness in it. I said to the instructor, “Yes I see what you mean. The blured undefined areas seem to change, according to my own mood, while the clearly defined strokes keep me anchored to the subject.” I caught her nod of approval out of the corner of my eye. Then other students started to arrive for the class. (The dream continued, but was less interesting after that)