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".

All work is available to be purchased, unless indicated that it has been sold. Each work is available as prints. Click the contact page to contact the artist for more information.

12” x 12”
Watercolor, Acrylic, Encaustic Gesso, Gauze, Tissue Paper, Paper Towel, and Ink on Aquabord
March 2017

In this dream, Michael, my brother, died unexpectedly. It was unclear how. Our family was visited by animals, and they all had Michael’s eyes. We believed it was him visiting us. At the beach, a dolphin visited us while we were all swimming; this dolphin had Michael’s blue-grey eyes. When taking a walk, a husky came up to us; this dog also had his eyes. I was would cry in the dream when these animals would visit us, and woke up sobbing.

Two 16” x 20”
Watercolor, Acrylic, and Ink on Aquabord
February 2017

In this dream I was a twin, but, confusingly, I was both of the twins. One twin was kind, the other immoral; I switched between being the two. When the kind twin was completing a task, I was the onlooker, and vice versa. The most memorable part of this dream was the bad twin slowly destroying our family house. When the rest of the family was inside, part of the roof collapsed on us. Once we got each family member out of the rubble, we ran outside to find the bad twin laughing on the roof, holding a sledgehammer.

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?

ONEIROPHOBIA

Oneirophobia Artist Statement

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