Crossroads, from Pieces of Dreams
Below is the basic design for the first twelve parts of a 60 part contiguous work, that begins an exploration called Pieces of Dreams, as these are interwoven into our daily lives. This work has many layers and is of multiple dimensions. Symbols play a part, but no literal interpretation can begin to tell it all. What matters here is what you find, not what I came to say.
Originally the images were 19.75″ x 26.50″.
Click on each image for greater detail, use the browser ‘back’ button to return here.
I invested 18 months in this sketch, and it’s an unfinished work that was designed simply to introduce the cast of characters for the entire 60 parts of this project. The second set of 12 was to have been Odyssey, and would’ve used the cast of characters (puzzle-people, shadow-people, games-people and survivors) to explore the interior of the mind. This was to have been a journey through condition and circumstance in both conscious and unconscious thought. The final 36 images – Quest – would have explored the various houses of personality: as we are, as we seek to be, and as others see us.
This began as a puzzle project for American Publishing, who later became Bits & Pieces. Because of the scale and ware-housing difficulties the project was scrapped, shortly after I started. The puzzles were to have been marketed in small groupings – from pairs to groups of three – to encourage the collection of the entire image of the completed work.
Artistically this was a bit of a cop-out as the work needed to be “completely filled with complexity” (when artistry often dictates much less cacophony). But this was my idea, and the company did not dictate any prerequisites about the composition for this work. In the end I lost my way – because of the basic contradiction at the core of what I came to say. Now, almost 20 years later, I’m thinking that perhaps an artistic version of these concepts might be well received – not as jigsaw puzzles but as a work of integrity, interconnection and potential – because of the conflicted state of the world today.
Enjoy!
Kirwan
San Francisco, 2003
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Dreams part 1 through 12
1 – First Light
The earth erupting into life
The rivers of our tears
a mix of joy and sorrow,
Cascading into canyons of our singularity
only to rise again
as the ground fog intermingles
with the autumn leaves
that consecrate the fertile ground again
This is the beginning point of Dreams
The earth erupting into life
The rivers of our tears
a mix of joy and sorrow,
Cascading into canyons of our singularity
only to rise again
as the ground fog intermingles
with the autumn leaves
that consecrate the fertile ground again
This is the beginning point of Dreams
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2 – Whispers
In a requiem for nature
mother earth awakens,
calling forth her shadows
that whisper into dreams
Secrets now of nature’s realm
that was
While plans are made
to build the dreams of others
out of her
And all of this before the din of progress comes,
to shape us in its image
3 – Shadows
Suspended in the twilight
a fugitive from genesis,
is this castle of the heart
Our shadow selves engage each other
in a dance for those
who have forgotten how to see
Upon this stage we live,
beneath the bridge of two beginnings
our conscience balances,
cliché upon cliché upon cliché
But in this fragment
which is real,
and which imaginary?
4 – Rubiayat
The possibilities between us
embodied in mirage
The forest seethes with changing life
fitting witness to the feast
Shadows frolic on the fringes
some that seek to touch,
and some that choose to flee
among the idle thoughts,
that populate this private banquet
between the forest and the sea
All Words by Lisa Gonzalez and Kirwan © 1984
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5 – Genesis
In the chasms between us
we radiate our ordered games
As pieces of an uncompleted puzzle
we watch the dance of change
Upon the twisted concourse
these figures from the game
begin to burn with life
Becoming as they leave the board
New figures,
in the wider world,
of dreams…
6 – Crossroads
At the vortex
beneath the monolith of memory
dreams are ordered or deferred
across the bar of promises
The surrounding carousel is pace
by past and future visions,
which linger here unopened
among these secret seekers,
Possibilities are endless
at this crossroads,
where realities have come
to intertwine with dreams
7 – Saturday’s
Upon the sound-stage,
we dramatize our thoughts
Dreams as yet unclaimed
are rising from the footlights,
while we rapture in performance:
That in the chorus thus created
no scrap of life
remains unlived
8 – Cage of Freedom
The city of the future-past
and present
The suburbs coalesce from bits of plastic
metal coins and loaded dice
Yet in the chaos
a tapestry of grand design,
takes form
Life and love and varied paths
between monuments to other times
While we move through – no longer held
within this cage of freedom
9 – Backstage
In the wings of every moment
we pause,
Observed, observing
we are both the puppets and the masters,
in a world where equilibrium
is suspect
We balance here,
Upon this backstage of our lives,
where so many dreams
are found…
10 – Crescendo
Survivors drift on leaves of learning
within a city turned to ice
while we return to that
from which we came
One measures things
by greater moments here;
Than all our constructs for the weight of time
can fathom
Cataclysms spark that flexibility
which frees us from our narrow selves,
Reminding us that dreams are never lost
along the path that’s filled with options…
11 – Night Mirror
In the glare of neon-night
we seek the questions that could make us wise,
Beneath the cloak of never-darkness
we search for long forgotten memories,
In the ebb and flow
that always follows
we ponder;
Reflected and reflecting
in this looking glass
of self
12 – unfinished – Pandora’s Gate
The always open door,
where life and death
become of equal weight
Beyond the portal,
the frozen sky
is shattered by new light
Ever-changing forms across the landscape move,
as transition colors all the unformed dreams
that hunger for each coming hour…
All images are © kirwan, all rights are reserved (unless otherwise noted).