Walking Dream with a Four Foot Clamp
The artist wrote (1 November 1965) that this picture 'was painted in February of 1965 when I had a temporary studio at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC. It along with the Janis picture called "Moving Girls and Dreams" were part of the group ... shown at Fraser's and were what I was feeling about at the time. It would be rather like "short changing" myself if I didn't use or not use everything that is available to me to make a picture, in this case dreams.' The pictures in this group are thinly painted - almost drawn - and the objects attached to them, often clothes, are not painted. Several have an English reference and most, like Walking Dream..., have a grey background and feature the outline of an electric light fitting which hung over Dine's bed. Girl's legs and feet (this was the period of the mini-skirt and stiletto heels) are the main motif of at least two further pictures: '16 Foot Line' and 'Moving Girls and Dreams' (Recent Work by Arman, Dine, Fahlstrom ..., Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, May 1965, nos.5 and 6 repr.), and appear in other related pictures and drawings. In addition, there are several sculptures of 1965 on the theme of boots, such as 'Leg walking through' (I and II) and 'Large Boot lying down.'
Dine's Happening 'Natural History (Dreams)' performed in New York in April 1965 was also concerned with dreams and free-association.
