The Monster of Colors Doesn't Have a Mouth

June 9, 2013 6:08 AM

"One day I dreamed that my parents, my brothers and I went to visit three islands and I jumped into the water without protection," she wrote in her diary. "I felt like I could be in the water and not drown. I was curious and I swam into the deep water and then I saw my skeleton with my name written on it." Roger Omar collects children's dreams, and asks artists to illustrate them.

The dream works have been collected in a project and book called "El monstruo de colores no tiene boca" ("the monster of colors doesn't have a mouth"), and also inspired the beautiful, tender, and surreal short film, "West of the Moon" by Brent Bonacorso.

posted by taz (17 comments total)

Children have scary dreams.

Thank you for posting this.
posted by blob at 6:23 AM on June 9, 2013

"the city where there are dogs that change color"

That's beautiful and also frightening. Good to see the next generation isn't slacking off on the numinous!
posted by thelonius at 6:29 AM on June 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

I love that the Flickr images include the dream description. Some of these are really good. This one made me laugh out loud, partly because I imagined Bond shooting himself in the foot.
posted by KGMoney at 7:07 AM on June 9, 2013

Just plain lovely and fascinating.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:09 AM on June 9, 2013

The Brent Bonacorso film is wonderful.
posted by kozad at 7:12 AM on June 9, 2013

I'm really sympathetic when my kids wake up from their nightmares. I can't remember what it's like, and I'm glad I don't; your first few bad nightmares must be the most terrifying, psychotic experience.
posted by mhoye at 7:37 AM on June 9, 2013

Oh wow, I will buy this book. I've been planning a comic based on illustrating the bizarre dreams I've been having and tweeting for the past five years, so this is definitely some of my favorite territory.

The one where Death is searching for his daughter is chilling!

In one of my earliest dreams, I was at a futuristic gas station/space station in the middle of nowhere, and I think I got left behind...
posted by limeonaire at 8:25 AM on June 9, 2013

This reminds me of a photo book I had by Arther Tress, "The Dream Collector." He photographed children reenacting their dreams. It was a wonderful book. I lost it in a flood; my own real life nightmare.

Thanks for posting this.
posted by cccorlew at 8:26 AM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Huh. After poking around, though, I can't figure out how to buy the book, nor the book of Cuban children's dreams that's also mentioned on the site. Is there a link I'm missing?
posted by limeonaire at 8:31 AM on June 9, 2013

Limeonaire, I was looking for it too (spent quite a bit of time googling around), but didn't find it. If I can locate it, I'll it post here.

cccorlew, funny you mention Tress; there was just a question about that book on Ask Metafilter, and I actually did a bit of searching to see if I could find it... which seems like it would be how I came upon this, but it wasn't. While looking for something totally different (an alternative source for this vid), I found the "West of the Moon" short posted at Robot Mafia, and then looked up Roger Omar from the info posted on the Vimeo page for the film.
posted by taz at 8:47 AM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

The book hasn't come out yet. One of the articles says it comes out later this year.
posted by dobbs at 9:02 AM on June 9, 2013

Ahh. The general gist I'm getting from poking around through the rest of the blog is that you possibly have to email Roger Omar at [e-mail] and/or PayPal him to purchase a given book. But I'm not sure how the shipping situation works or anything like that. I'm drafting an email in Spanish to ask more about how it works...
posted by limeonaire at 9:07 AM on June 9, 2013

Cool.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:01 AM on June 9, 2013

Oh yay! I got an email back from Roger Omar. He notes that the online store is here, where the books Fear of Green and Today I Will Eat You Princess can be purchased. He also recommends the accordion stories (also viewable on the 6 dreams Tumblr), especially "Blue Desert" ("Desierto Azul"). I just put in an order for, well, everything.

He said he definitely has noticed a lot of visits from MetaFilter in his blog stats and asked for more info; I'll let him know about this post and how to join!
posted by limeonaire at 12:17 PM on June 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

FYI, I sent him a gift account, so maybe he'll decide to join and come post!
posted by limeonaire at 12:38 PM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thanks limeonaire. I just ordered 2 of everything.
posted by dobbs at 2:22 PM on June 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

I may be in a dream. I came from San Francisco to Mazatlan to spend some time with the in-laws. I was watching a 3 month old baby moving her hands in her sleep and wondering what her little dreams could be like. I was watching the baby while wrapping in newspaper alebrijes, which are literally physical manifestations of mounstros de colores from a fevered man's dreams. Someone yelled 'Omar' out in the street. I went to close the window and there I picked up my tablet and rtfa.

So many coincidences mean I have to get this book.

If Roger shows up here I will offer to trade one of his books for a ballena Pacifico fresh from the brewery and aguachile y pulpo para picar from El Toro.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 11:32 PM on June 9, 2013 [2 favorites]