"Blowing Through the Dream"

Bubble Man (c) Noelle Clearwater

I took this photo of The Bubble Man at this summer's Solstice Parade in Santa Barbara. He was not a parade participant but rather a creative onlooker who had become imbued with the imaginative spirit of the dream far beyond anyone else present there as far as I could tell.  As the parade was passing by, he did not watch but instead closed his eyes, dipped his wand and focused on blowing the perfect crystal sphere into the air beyond him. If he had done nothing else in his entire life but this, I would have been satisfied, so intent was he on making it happen.  I was mesmerized by him, and I missed a portion of the parade just trying to get the perfect shot of his uplifted face encircled by light as he "blew through the dream. He was a bubble artist.
I tried to think of someone else like him who had given his life to his art by "blowing through the dream." The man who came to mind was Louis Armstrong, "Satchmo" whose horn and singing voice remain legendary to this day. Here he is singing, "Dream a Little Dream of Me." Take it away, Louis!

Dream a Little Dream by Louis Armstrong