Original Art Piece

Sarah dreaming with lovely little goldfish swimming around her (they are not immediately obvious). Traditionally, goldfish, particularly Koi, have been used as a symbol of good luck and good fortune. Several ancient stories and fairy tales also include stories of goldfish granting wishes or making dreams come true. In Chinese tradition, goldfish have an association with abundance.

From the Dreamers Series

That time betwixt awake and asleep. This series consists of colour-saturated paintings of figures in repose. The theme connecting them all is dreaming, sleep and sleep's wicked twin, insomnia. Working primarily in acrylic paints, most of the images have abstract elements, with the faces fully rendered.

“Now, blessings light on him that first invented sleep! It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even.”

– Miguel de Cervantes

Sleep is essential to our lives, yet modern society undervalues this activity and sees it as unproductive. Maybe this is because, as Cervantes observes, everybody is equal while sleeping, all of us vulnerable and helpless no matter what we do during our waking hours. But at the same time, our dreams are as varied and particular as we are. The body may be quiet but the mind continues to be active.

With this conundrum in mind, this series uses the figure in repose as a way of exploring colour, light and texture to evoke a sense of wonder. The settings are sometimes realistic and sometimes not, helping to elicit a sense of the personalities of my subjects, whose private journeys I spy upon and intercept through my own imagination.