Author's Note:

From the unconscious to our world

 

Born from visions scattered within the unconscious, the story of Queen Crystal and The Land revealed itself to me in a dream.  This amazing tale would not have come into our conscious world if it had not been for my background with dream images.

While attending the University of South Florida and working toward my Fine Arts degree, I entered my third studio course in painting.  I worked independently.  Since I had been fascinated with the surrealist movement, I decided to depict dream images in my paintings.  To do so I began sketching past dream images merged with current ones.  My journal quickly filled with detailed images.  The more I recorded my dreams, the more I remembered them. 

I had always observed daily life around me: color, details, people and their reactions to situations, but then I began doing the same in my unconscious state.   My dreams went beyond serving as images for me - I began taking part in them and solving problems that I did not have time for during the day. 

“Can you hand me the sandpaper?” I called out in middle of the night.  My husband was confused.  He did not realize I was creating something during one of my dreams. 

Often I was myself while dreaming, but at times I was a man, a different woman, and on one occasion, a bird.  It became apparent that I was more involved in my dream state than I had ever been in my daily life.  I began seeing through the eyes of numerous beings while taking part in their lives.

After my studio class, I kept recording my dreams: noting the lessons I learned and writing about the people I had met or had spent time as. 

Ten years after I pursued my dreams for the purpose of art I woke with the amazing tale of Crystal Elderbee’s young life still fresh in my mind.  I realized that what I had experienced in my sleep could not drift from my mind, or it would be lost to this world.  I wrote down the entire dream that is now the first chapter of The Land.  On March 2^nd, 1996 the birth of this fantasy captured me in a dream and it has been my pleasure to continue Crystal's tale for everyone to enjoy.