Nori Land started when I was a teenager and made a giant mural on a wall of these islands. My friends called it Noriland.
When I went to art school in my thirties, my instructor, Lu Bellamak, wanted me to explore Noriland. She said go through her library of art books and look for something that mirrored my image of Noriland. I found Desmond Morris. Here's the cover of the book my art teacher shared with me. My teacher wanted me to add creatures to Noriland, so I developed hundreds of Noriland creatures based on the artwork of Desmond Morris. Then I did a series of large Noriland oil paintings.*
Norland Creature Art
NoriLand creatures are energy centers.
Fanciful surreal creatures
Surreal creatures
Dream makers
Based in the desert between Los Angeles and Phoenix
The islands represent my isolation and loneliness as a teenager. The Noriland creatures are a metaphor for energy centers in the mind, and represent my understanding of the Dream Makers. NoriLand creatures appear in my dreams from time to time. Here's one example:
April 5, 2006
I go to my dad's house - I'm helping someone with something, so I go to the store for Scotch Tape. I drive East on Sunset - there are no stores - I stop at a hotel and fall in the pool. They have a whale or weird NoriLand creature living in the pool. But it's friendly. The pool water is very nice so I swim around. I meet some nice people by the pool & make friends with them & give them my card. I try to go back to Dad's house but don't have a car - I try walking up the hill on a trail, but call the house on my cell phone & ask my mom to pick me up - I have to go wait for her on the street.
Nightmare About this Painting:
Nightmare * Dated February 23, 1995
theme: " A Dream Character suddenly has a soul" It is a real person now.
gist: I dream of a creature from a painting I did. Suddenly the fantasy creature has a mind of its own and seems to be plotting my demise - I call it what it is and it tries to suck me into it. I kick, struggle, scream.
lucid: I wake myself up from the dream, trying to make noise When I wake up I'm frightened, then fall back asleep praying for the creature. The creature joined me just as I was drifting off and I realize it has become a real person.
resolution: The evil possessive spirit has been exorcised. Sent into orbit. After that I see the ISKCON child who died by suicide, and an angel of God who was talking directly to us. The boy's mother is crying over his dead body. It's going to be okay now. he's free, he's safe, he's smiling & showing off for his friends. Surrounded in white light.
environmental influence: when I woke up, I played a CD to calm myself down. It may have had an aural influence over the second part of the dream. In the dream record I noted it was a CD of Prabhupada chanting.
daytime continuity: Jivananda died by suicide September 14, 1994. At the time of this dream, about five months later, I was working on my Noriland series in art school. The nightmare coincided with my painting, "Jiva Departs," which shows a dragon-like creature flying away from a Noriland island.
