ONEIROPHOBIA
(n.) a fear of dreams and nightmares; suffered due to experiences with nightmares, or by negative events in life affecting dreams; sufferers try to avoid falling asleep.
(origin) Greek όνειρο (oneiro), meaning "dream", and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear".
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Oneirophobia Artist Statement
Gauze, rope, dirt. What do these materials have in common? All are important elements in my most recent artwork. Looking into how suppressed emotions come out in dreams is an area of great interest to me, and have entered into the realm of my art in this series, Oneirophobia. My three-dimensional additions on two-dimensional painting turn into ethereal abstracted paintings using one or more of the following: watercolor, acrylic, gauze, Mod Podge, sand, rope, gesso, and dirt, among other materials. The addition of three-dimensional materials comes from the idea of how dreams are recycled materials from one’s day experienced in their waking hours being thrown into the dream in a seemingly abrupt manner. In order to begin the process for a specific work, I pick one of my dreams that I have written down and meditate on it. I allow for any and all emotions to emerge around this dream without judging them, and then begin to sketch. This analysis allows for my work to be profoundly process oriented. Each painting has its own unique color palette, specific to that dream. Because I dream in black in white with one or two colors, I use these few colors to begin building a color palette. This dream analysis work is a precise balance between structure and a sense of dreamlike infinity. If there were no boundary of the edge of the boards, these paintings would move on in an everlasting manner. Are each of these works a still from the dream, or is it a reel of footage from the entire dream?
When working on a piece, I treat each flowing line like it is its own painting. These separate line paintings begin to melt together into a ribbon-like form, streaming across the board in an elegant fashion swerving around each three-dimensional object, creating a composition driven by movement. Misery, hatred, and panic are common themes that emerge in my dreams that I portray in each of my paintings. These, along with other states of emotions that commonly emerge in my dreams, are states that I deny myself to feel in my waking hours, and emerge during my resting hours.
Wouldn’t you be afraid to dream?