By Skyler Locke

I had a dream the other night. In the dream, I was in a fancy but rustic house with the most amazing view, a storm cloud overhead, ready to pour all over the area. It’s dusk, that dark blue sky right before it gets shrouded by the cloak of night. I sit there scrolling through my phone, probably tik-tok or some other brain melting social media. After scrolling for a while, I begin to hear the pitter-patter of the rain pebbles against the metal roof. I look up and I see on the balcony a weird creature, cast in shadow. Instead of fear, I am struck with wonder, and for some reason, go to capture a picture with my phone.   

My phone locks up, in perfect dream logic, I realize that the government doesn’t want me to take a picture of this creature. So, I grab my Polaroid, I attempt to take a picture of the creature, but by then it’s already gone. I creep towards the balcony to see if I can find it, maybe over the ledge, or hiding around the corner. I open the glass door, and am met with the loud crashes of hard rain and thunder, but also with the sounds of the ocean. I look out of the balcony and I notice that the rain has caused a colossal flood.

I notice that water is at the base of the house, quite a feat considering the house was on top of a massive mountain overlooking a valley. It looks as if this house is helplessly floating in the middle of a cool dark ocean. I attempt to take pictures of the beauty that’s unfolding, but I soon awaken to the loud chirps of the two crickets looking for mates in my bedroom.

In my life, I’ve been going through a transition, from the structure and comfort of highschool, to the bewildering and ambiguous freedom of young adulthood. After my graduation, I decided to join Springhouse as the Artist in Residence. This helped in securing and defining our new space; Springhouse Downtown. We have come to define what this role means, and one of these roles is to use the Springhouse Downtown space as an artistic canvas. I’ve been sitting with ways to create art in the space that meets needs in the community, and work as a beautiful learning experience for me.

I’ve been having many intense, surreal, and vivid dreams recently, all of these dreams seem to point to an almost discovery of some mystery, a confusion, a liminal space. Recently, I had the epiphany to create art focused around this transition, the dream-like, melancholic, nostalgic journey of the in between. 

I’m excited to share more soon.

In the meantime, I am leading the Floyd Needs Art Show, a community based show giving an opportunity to local artists in Floyd to share about needs they are seeing that aren’t being met. It’s important that we shed light on these needs, and the last thing I want is for it to be only the needs I or other staff members see, so please, participate if you can! This show takes place on Nov 4th in Springhouse Downtown, If anyone is interested in participating, please reach out to me at Skyler@springhouse.org.

So excited for what’s in store!

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