Relics form “The Dream Machine”
Sabbatical work by Nathan Peck

After nearly twenty years at Saint Xavier University, I finally took a semester off for professional development and creative production. My sabbatical was scheduled for last spring. I guess it was lucky that everything was closed. I am easily distracted and I really wanted to have time in the studio. The downside, is that I generally prefer to make art with other people, and all my other people just wanted to stay home too.

I spent over a thousand hours in the studio, mostly alone, except for my record collection, several dozen audio books and eventually the Chicago White Sox.

When I am otherwise locked away alone like this, as I was when working the factory third shift in college, or at artist retreats in Germany or France, a funny thing happens. I start to lose a little bit of control over the slippery space between dreams and wakes. The dreams become simulations of the waking life and my waking life becomes filled with attempts to replicate results I found in my dreams.

The combination of muscle memory and the self-assurance of only my opinion makes the action continue long after I fall asleep. My unconscious brain puts in another 8-hour shift complete with every detail. I can feel every splinter, smell the paint, taste the stale coffee and wince when it all falls apart again.

The reward for this labor is the vision. I get to see what my mind makes, when it is not constrained by time, budget or physics. I try to excavate some of those ideas and bring them back to the waking side. Like relics from another time and place.

For most of my life I have sketched out these dream relics with pencil on paper. This show is an attempt to actually fabricate and exhibit some of those relics to see what I can learn from them.

Nathan Peck
Associate Professor - Art & Design
Saint Xavier University

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