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Freud1 has called the dream the via regia (royal road) to the unconscious. As a result of her sensitivity, her ability to remember her dreams with accuracy and skill to express these elusive images graphically, Lynette Cooney allows us to enter her private dream world. Miller writes,2 "Reflecting on my own dreams, I find I do not simply see them, or seem and hear them, I experience them." The essence of Cooney's work is the experience of the dream.
Her goals as expressed by the artist: "I try to keep the feeling of the dream close to me-a way to resolve things .... the images take their own course, which is amazing really ... Some are on rosewood, or thicker board ... I was experimenting and liked hardwood. It was important to anchor, to stabilize the dream; with canvas, it was more vulnerable." In one scene the swirling texture of natural wood-grain is used to provide the rhythm of strong ocean currents which a swimmer is combating. A wide colour range is used to extend the quality of the dreams, for instance, in Buses floating on the Cloudlike Sea they are extremely soft and give a floating quality.
Cooney's dreams relate to her experiences as well as to mythology, lending an archetypal quality to much of her work. It was Jung who stressed the connection between dreams and mythology, both of which portray powerful archetypal figures.3 Frequently occurring images of dreams such as the engulfing tidal wave, wrecked ship and drowning swimmer are easily identifiable, yet reflect ancient fears of the precarious nature of life. Cuneiform texts describe the deluge brought on by the Sumerian deity, Enlil, and the subsequent