The Dungeon and The Dance

I created the painting above of a “treetch” breaking free of the chains of the dungeon of darkness, despair, unhappiness –and running into the light of enjoying life. Notice how the chains are broken but still attached to the creature. That is how life seems to me– you never totally escape the chains… I think instead you need to learn to dance and swing those chains around as you dance.. Yeah, the chains will still pull you down sometimes, but keep breaking out and overcoming those chains as often as you can!

 

THE DUNGEON

“A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette is a form of dungeon which is accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling.”  –Wikipedia

My name is Frank Robert Dixon.  I am an artist and an art teacher (you can see more of  my art at frankrobertdixon.com).  I have spent more of my life than I would have liked in my Dungeon of Despair. As of June, 2024, I am 70 years old  and still have not mastered the art of escaping this dungeon.  I suspect I will spend some time there from time to time for the rest of my life.  But I have started to realize and learn and experience that I don’t have to be a prisoner in that dungeon!  I am seeking these days to enjoy life as much and as often as I can. That is what this website is all about– my journey (and the journey of all of us who struggle} in seeking to escape the Dungeon of Depression/Despair and to spend more time smiling, doing and enjoying life.  I do not have all the answers.  I am seeking answers too.

Here are a couple quotes that I find encourage me in the right direction:

“ONE WAY TO GET THE MOST OUT OF LIFE IS TO LOOK UPON IT AS AN ADVENTURE.”
–William Feather

“FUN IS THE SECRET TO FEELING ALIVE.” –Catherine Price (TED Talk)

I started this website on July 20, 2012.  In 2016 I finished creating the cool picture you see above of the “treetch” escaping the Dungeon of Despair and swinging his broken chains around in ecstasy.   What is a “treetch” you might ask.  A treetch is a fantasy creature I made up…a tree creature– a walking, talking tree.  I drew the very first one over 25 years ago.

THE DANCE

I am not an expert on how to permanently “dance out of the dungeon”.  I still have to “practice ways to dance out of the dungeon”, because I never totally escape.  I am very happy to say that I have found some ways that usually work for me to escape the dungeon and “dance”.  Dance here means to feel happy and free and enjoying life.  One of the best ways I have found to begin to escape is to “do something….anything”.  I have found that if I do one thing, it makes it a little easier to do another thing, and then another….

These “Rules of the Dance” were created in a rather unusual way.  The “Rules of the Dungeon” I wrote down based on my own personal experience. But the “Rules of the Dance” were not based on my personal experience. Back in about 2004 I was meeting weekly with a psychotherapist, and I showed him my “Rules of the Dungeon”.  He suggested to me that I make a list of “exact opposites” of each rule.  So I did that, and that became my  “Rules of the Dance”.  I really love this list, but I daily have to keep working at trying to have it be a bigger part of my life.  In my own life, during the times when I am “dancing” and “not chained in my dungeon of despair” I find that many of these rules of the “Dancing List” just naturally become a part of my life (until I inevitably stop dancing at some point or other, and get a bit chained up for awhile…until I get myself to start dancing again).


I think we all struggle some in life, but I am sure glad it is not all a struggle. I hope you find a way to enjoy your life between (and maybe even during) those times of struggles.  I try to.
 
 
SOME MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST, THE DUNGEON of DEPRESSION AND DESPAIR,  AND DANCING:
 
Below are actual replies I made on Facebook on May 23, 2019 to people, talking to them about my art and struggles:
 
I like being an artist. And one of the things I have painted about in many of my treetch paintings is my struggles with being a human. I even made a website a few years ago (you are looking at it) about those struggles and about how I (and many of us) struggle sometimes greatly with our emotions and getting our life to work better.
 
I have had some artists tell me they struggle with all these feelings of insecurity, despair, depression, and fear– but that they just try to run away from those feelings and just be happy. Instead,  I decided to just paint pictures and write about all these feelings I was struggling with (it was actually hard to do because the feelings of despair made me want to just sit and do nothing!).
 
We all respond to artwork emotionally, and I think when the artist is expressing something he is grappling with or experiencing, the viewer of the art will see those powerful emotions and the art can reach out to us in ways we don’t quite understand, and we can identify with it, and maybe it can even help us heal a little and maybe begin to explore and understand ourselves better. I have actually had some artists tell me that my words and images have helped them in their lives, and I do know many of my images are about very real struggling emotions I have gone through, and it has seemed to help me deal better with life having splattered and painted my struggles into my paintings and journal entries.
 
I even made a book where I collected my images and words (the book is called Struggles of A Treetch). But I have not marketed the book very well, so it is hard to find. One of these days I plan to get the book on Amazon so people can buy it more easily.