Interview with Lisa Rigge

As part of an on-going series of interviews with dream workers, today's post will focus on Lisa Rigge's work with dream collage. She leads a drop-in workshop at the Bothwell Art Center in Livermore, CA (monthly on the second Monday, 12:30 to 3:30 pm). Today's illustration has been provided by one of her students.

DD: When did you first become interested in furthering you understanding of dreams by creating collages? Was there anything in particular that inspired you to use this particular medium?
Lisa: I became interested in dreams and collage at the first International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) conference I attended around 2006. I was drawn to this nonverbal aspect of dream work because projective dream work had become too much of an intellectual endeavor for me. I needed something that would enable me to experience and process my own dreams.

DD: Are students with no art background comfortable working with this method? How do you suggest they start?
Lisa: Any one can come to these workshops. All they need to know to begin is how to cut out a picture with a pair of scissors and glue it to a piece of paper. They need to be willing to trust this process - that they will gain insights about their dreams through making and dialoging with their collages. To get students started I usually have a handout about an aspect of dreaming that they can use as an idea or guide to begin working.

DD: Can you give an example of a student who discovered a new meaning in her dream after she worked on a collage?
Lisa: Yes. One of my student's offered to share her experience with us. She created the collage that accompanies this post. Here she is, in her own words:

My dream involved a 30 ft.bear approaching my house as I looked out through the screen door. The bear was not threatening and there was no fear or dread- I felt puzzled and a little bit lucky. For years I didn't question the dream, but I remembered it vividly. When I began piecing together collage elements for this in dream collage class, it became very clear to me that the bear was a symbol for our move to California. Making the collage gave me valuable insight and some needed closure.

Working with Your Dreams: Take a Class

If you’ve been recording your dreams for a while and want to get some insight into what your dreams can teach you, you might consider taking a class. Community colleges, churches, and adult education centers sometimes offer classes on working with your dreams. What might you learn from doing this?  Of course each class will be different, but to give you the flavor of a class I’m going to use as an example a San Francisco Bay Area dream class taught by Lisa Rigge.* 

This class covers techniques for remembering and recording dreams, and puts dreams into an historical context—for example, what role have they played on the world stage? Students become familiar with common dream symbols, learn to identify dream themes, and learn techniques and exercises to better understand dreams, such as mapping dreams and learning what questions to ask of them.  In order to expand on what they’ve learned from the initial exercises, students take a dream forward through what Jung called “active imagination” techniques. One of these has the dreamer dialogue with characters or images in the dream. Others uses artistic devices—such as drawing, poetry, and creating a mandala—to further explore dream messages. To sum it up, the class introduces and explores ways of getting to know your dreams.

*Taught through the Las Positas Community Education Program in Livermore, California on two Saturdays, Oct. 23rd and Oct. 30th from 12:30 - 4:30 p.m. The class fee is $79.00. To register click here.