My dreams have been a bit odd lately, even by my standards. The other night I dreamed that I had an MRI scan and that I was deficient in elemental gold and silver in the region of the caudate and putamen, central gray-matter structures deep inside the brain. The treatment (obviously) was to infuse gold and silver dust through the nasal passages so it could be absorbed and transported to the appropriate region.

Today’s watercolor experiment:

My watercolor study today originated with a dream, but fits quite nicely into my ‘brain series’ of watercolors (Brain Teasers, Compartmentalization, Memory Fades, Untitled, Brain Abstract, Head Butt).

Process:

My first thought was to squeeze a silhouette of a head into the confines of the picture plane, with the nose right up against the frame. I made a rough drawing just a couple of lines for the nose and mouth, and sketched an outline of the brain. I did have to refer to my neuroanatomy atlas to properly place the caudate/putamen within the sagittal cross section of the whole brain.

The nose is key in the dream, as this is the route of administration of the silver and gold.  Of course, one would need a funnel to pipe the silver and gold into the nose. Through a miraculous (read – dreamlike) process, these precious elements make their way to exactly where they are needed, which I represent by outlining the gold and silver colors with black.

Colors:

I used my mixture for flesh tone (cadmium red deep, yellow ochre and titanium white) for the skin tones of the nose and mouth and for the brain stem and caudate/putamen. Spectrum yellow gouache colors the funnel and the ventricles (the space at the center of the central nervous system), starting at the lower right part of the canvas, and the region around the central pink structure (caudate/putamen). The latter area looks green because it was washed with viridian, a transparent green which I used to wash the entire expanse of the brain, except the central flesh-colored area.

I used gobs of imitation gold and silver gouache to illustrate the administration of these life saving elements to my brain.

Comment:

My dreams frequently tell me what I already know. Who couldn’t use an infusion of silver and gold, through the nose or by any other means of administration?