How Dalí Helps Me Create

Yesterday I searched for a gift for my son whose birthday is coming up. He’s an artist who favors surrealists and abstract expressionism.

I came upon some Salvador Dalí paintings which made me remember a trip to London with my son where we visited “Dalí Universe.”

I read that much of his artwork came to him in the few seconds between sleep and wakefulness. I imagined Dalí dipping into his dreams while creating his artwork. He referred to his art as “hand-painted dream photographs.”

Dali called this “method” his “secret of sleeping while awake,” or the hypnagogic state.

This captured my attention since I frequently find that dawn is when I feel most creative. 

Today during those seconds between waking and leaving my dreams I found a poem. 

 

Sleep State

 In the depths of the morning

I touch heaven,

the dawn rises

in ribbons of blue, 

in the quiet

before the hum

of living.

 

 

In the depths of the morning,

when light creeps through

a flutter of lashes,

I reach back into a dream

to salvage a memory

relive a feeling.

 

In the depths of the morning,

in the silence

where there is only me,

I breath life 

through a yawn

and decide

to try another day.

Luckily, I have my cell phone on my nightstand and use it to record notes, including this poem. I find if I turn on my lamp to use my pen and jot words down on paper, the bright light distracts me.

Maybe this technique of “sleeping while awake” will help you as a writer, artist, or poet.

Or you can try sleeping more, 😴

What prompts your creativity?