For me, the genius of Carl Jung lay in his willingness to allow dreams to influence his thinking. Jung wrote, ‘I knew no reasons for the assumption that the tricks of consciousness can be extended to the natural processes of the unconscious. On the contrary, daily experience taught me what intense resistance the unconscious opposes to the tendencies of the conscious mind.’ [1]  In dreams, houses often refer to the psyche of the dreamer. Following one such dream about a dwelling Jung developed his theory of the collective unconscious. Jung interpreted the dream as follows, ‘It was plain to me that the house represented a kind of image of the psyche – that is to say, of my own then state of consciousness, with hitherto unconscious additions. Consciousness was represented by the salon. It had an inhabited atmosphere, in spite of its antiquated style, The ground floor stood for the first level of the unconscious. The deeper I went, the more alien and the darker the scene became....

  I knew that I wanted a project but was unclear what shape the project would take. It would involve amplification, the method developed by Carl Jung in the interpretation of dreams, but I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, analyst or therapist but an artist. Before I went to sleep, I asked what form the project would take, hoping that I would have a dream that I would remember on waking. I had a lot of dreams that night but all I remembered on waking was the image of a row of people sat in a ditch writing in notebooks. I initially dismissed this as a simple image of no importance but decided to try a technique I sometimes use to interpret my dreams. I have a conversation with my dream self and write it down in a notebook. I ask my dream self a question and write down the first response that comes to mind, without thinking about it. The conversation with my dream self unfolded as follows: Me: Why do I dream of a row of people sat in a ditch writing in notebooks? Dream sel...

  Having not drawn anything for two and a half years I found drawing difficult. It was also very tiring and wasn’t coming naturally. When I was a child, I had how to draw books. I had books on how to draw and paint trees. I am still drawing them. I also had a book on how to draw horses. My favourite book was at my grandparents’ house. I still have this book, “I Wish I could Draw:” A System of Art Teaching by Natural Methods by Percy V. Bradshaw, published in 1941. Bradshaw was a cartoonist who founded his own art correspondence course, The Press Art School. I remember using it to try and draw an apple. I realised that many of the visual images in this book have returned in different artworks over the years. I also used to copy from images in bird books as I was obsessed with birds. I am still drawing birds. These days the internet is full of how to draw posts and videos. They seem to be some of the most popular posts and blogs. The problem is, I do not really know how I draw. I...

  I am still trying to figure out why I keep buying and obsessing over journals and sketchbooks. If I understood the significance of a blank book this could nip the obsession in the bud. I have asked before going to sleep in the hope that my unconscious mind will convey something to me in a dream but to no avail. Instead, I have the following dream: I am at my old workplace. I am hypomanic and drawing all over the place, on any surface I can find. My colleague says he is going to report me. I know I am going to loose my job but I just can’t stop myself. In reality, I am literally drawing all over the place. As well as doing separate drawings I am drawing in the copy book and in two other sketchbooks. I decided that if I keep obsessively buying sketchbooks then I need to use them. I am now wondering what I was thinking. That is a lot of drawing in a lot of different places. I then decide to use the journals and sketchbooks to create scrapbooks. I start a scrapbook on the theme...