Jamie Holcombe: jholcombe@csu.edu.au

"I've got a thousand miles to go", I said to my friend in my dream last night. I dreamed that we had walked out of my house onto the street, and were gazing down the road ahead. As soon as I had said that, still dreaming, I experienced two powerful realisations.

The first was one of recognition, a déjà vu. I dreamed that I instantly realised I had had the same dream before, and had told my friend about it. Of course I hadn't necessarily had this dream before, I was just dreaming that I had. I vividly remember not dreaming this earlier dream in my current dream though; it was more like an attachment, which just came to me.

This "attachment" dream finished like this. When I told my friend about it he said, "Yeah! That's really great! I know exactly what you mean, it makes perfect sense". I felt like I had sat at the feet of the master who had given me sanction to continue, even though no-one seemed to be able to articulate in words what it all meant.

The second realisation of last night's dream came as a sense of knowing. Still dreaming, I looked at my friend with the same understanding he had given me in the earlier dream. As we looked at each other I was reminded of the story of the two art watchers who were standing in front of an artwork on a gallery wall. They suddenly caught each other's eye and acknowledged a profound understanding, a kind of unsaid "Yeah!" This wonderful transference was mediated by the image on the wall. A third person came up to them and asked what it was that they appeared to be getting out of the artwork. They found themselves unable to explain, as if again the words just didn't exist. They simply replied, "Can't you see?"

In the dream I looked at my friend and, overwhelmed by this strong sense of knowing, it all became perfectly clear. This day is the deadline for my artist's statement for the Transference exhibition. As the saying goes, every picture tells a thousands words. So, it seems to me, while ever I'm searching for words to explain my pictures I'm missing the point - I'll always have a thousand miles to go!